THE  PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE 
JACKSON  PERIOD 


:.,:? 


A17QMEW  -oM 


THE  PARTY  BATTLES 

OF  THE 

JACKSON  PERIOD 

BY 
CLAUDE  G.  BOWERS 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

«**  Camfrrfoge 
1922 


COPYRIGHT,    1922,  BY  CLAUDE  G.  BOWERS 
ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 


(Cfjc  fciberstbe 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

IT  is  the  purpose  of  the  author  to  deal,  more  minutely  than  is 
possible  in  a  general  history  or  biography,  with  the  brilliant, 
dramatic,  and  epochal  party  battles  and  the  fascinating  per 
sonalities  of  the  eight  years  of  Andrew  Jackson's  Adminis 
trations.  From  the  foundation  of  the  Republic  to  the  last 
two  years  of  the  Wilson  Administration,  the  Nation  has  never 
known  such  party  acrimony;  nor  has  there  been  a  period 
when  the  contending  party  organizations  have  been  led  by 
such  extraordinary  politicians  and  orators.  It  was,  in  a  large 
sense,  the  beginning  of  party  government  as  we  have  come  to 
understand  it.  It  was  not  until  the  Jacksonian  epoch  that 
we  became  a  democracy  in  fact.  The  selection  of  Presidents 
then  passed  from  the  caucus  of  the  politicians  in  the  capital 
to  the  plain  people  of  the  factories,  fields,  and  marts.  The 
enfranchisement  of  thousands  of  the  poor,  previously  ex 
cluded  from  the  franchise,  and  the  advent  of  the  practical 
organization  politicians,  wrought  the  change.  Our  govern 
ment,  as  never  before,  became  one  of  parties,  with  well-de 
fined,  antagonistic  principles  and  policies.  Party  discipline 
and  continuous  propaganda  became  recognized  essentials  to 
party  success. 

This  period  witnessed  the  origin  of  modern  party  methods. 
The  spoils  system,  instead  of  being  a  mere  manifestation  of 
some  viciousness  in  Jackson,  grew  out  of  the  assumed  neces 
sity  for  rewarding  party  service.  The  recognition  of  party 
government  brought  the  national  convention.  The  new 
power  of  the  masses  necessitated  compact  and  drilled  party 
organizations  down  to  the  precincts  of  the  most  remote  sec 
tions,  and  even  the  card-index  system  known  to-day  was 
part  of  the  plan  of  the  incomparable  politicians  of  the 


vi  PREFACE 

Kitchen  Cabinet.  The  transfer  of  authority  from  the  small 
coterie  of  politicians  to  the  people  in  the  corn  rows  imposed 
upon  the  leaders  the  obligation  to  furnish  the  rank  and  file  of 
their  followers  with  political  ammunition  for  the  skirmishes 
at  the  country  stores  as  well  as  for  the  heavy  engagements 
at  the  polls,  and  out  of  this  sprang  the  intense  development 
of  the  party  press,  the  delivery  of  congressional  speeches  for 
"home  consumption,"  the  party  platform,  and  the  keynote 
speech. 

The  triumph  of  the  Jacksonians  over  the  Clays,  the  Web- 
sters,  and  the  Calhouns  was  due,  in  large  measure,  to  their 
development  of  the  first  great  practical  politicians  —  that 
much-depreciated  company  sneeringly  referred  to  as  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet,  to  whom  all  politicians  since  have  paid 
the  tribute  of  imitation. 

With  the  appearance  of  Democracy  in  action  came  some 
evils  that  have  persisted  through  the  succeeding  years  —  the 
penalties  of  the  rule  of  the  people.  Demagogy  then  reared 
its  head  and  licked  its  tongue.  Class  consciousness  and 
hatreds  were  awakened.  And,  on  the  part  of  the  great  cor 
porations,  intimidation,  coercion,  and  the  corrupt  use  of 
money  to  control  elections  were  contributed.  These  evils  are 
a  heritage  of  the  bitter  party  battles  of  the  Jacksonian  period 
—  battles  as  brilliant  as  they  were  bitter. 

The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  describe  these  mad  party 
struggles,  and  to  picture,  as  they  really  were,  the  great  his 
torical  figures,  "warts  and  all."  If  Henry  Clay  is  here  shown 
as  an  unscrupulous,  selfish,  scheming  politician,  rather  than 
as  the  mythical  figure  who  "would  rather  be  right  than  Pres 
ident";  if  John  C.  Calhoun  is  here  described  as  petty  in  his 
personal  hates  and  spites  and  in  his  resentment  over  the  fail 
ure  of  personal  ambitions;  if  Daniel  Webster,  the  most  ad 
mirable  of  the  three  during  these  eight  vivid  years,  is  set  forth, 
not  only  as  the  great  Nationalist  who  replied  to  Hayne  and 
sustained  Jackson's  Nullification  Proclamation,  but  as  the 


PREFACE  vii 

defender  of  the  Bank  from  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fight,  he  bluntly  solicited  a  "refreshment"  of  his  retainer,  it  is 
not  through  any  desire  to  befoul  their  fame,  but  to  set  down 
the  truth  as  irrefutably  disclosed  in  the  records,  and  to 
depict  them  as  they  were  —  intensely  human  in  their  moral 
limitations. 

The  necessities  of  history  happily  call  for  the  featuring  of 
some  figures,  potent  in  their  generation,  attractive  in  their 
genius,  and  necessarily  passed  over  by  historians  covering 
much  longer  periods.  No  close-up  picture  of  the  time  can  be 
painted  that  ignores  Edward  Livingston,  patriot  and  philoso 
pher;  Roger  B.  Taney,  the  militant  party  leader;  John  For- 
syth,  the  "greatest  debater  of  his  time";  John  M.  Clayton, 
the  real  master  of  both  Calhoun  and  Clay  in  the  Compromise 
of  1833;  George  McDuffie,  the  tempestuous  Danton  of  the 
Opposition;  Hugh  La wson  White,  the  "Cato  of  the  Senate" 
and  the  Nemesis  of  Jacksonian  Democracy;  William  Cabell 
Preston  and  Horace  Binney,  the  polished  orators,  now  almost 
forgotten;  Major  Lewis,  the  master  of  political  details;  Frank 
Blair,  the  slashing  journalistic  champion  of  the  Administra- 
^BOS  Kendall,  the  genius  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet, 
analysis  of  motives  and  methods  has  led  to  some  un 
conventional  conclusions.  Not  only  do  Clay,  Webster,  and 
Calhoun  dwindle  in  moral  grandeur,  but  others,  traditionally 
considered  small,  loom  large.  Thus  the  John  Tyler  of  these 
eight  years  stands  out  in  intellectual  honesty,  courage,  and 
consistency  far  beyond  others  to  whom  history  has  been  more 
generous. 

No  apology  need  be  offered  for  featuring  the  personalities 
of  the  time.  They  throw  light  on  motives  and  explain  events. 
The  episode  of  Mrs.  Eaton  changed  the  current  of  political 
history.  The  gossip  concerning  Mrs.  White  indicates  the 
putridity  of  political  factionalism.  The  scurrilous  biography 
of  Van  Buren  written  by  Davie  Crockett  on  the  suggestion 
of  Senator  White  is  illuminative  of  the  popular  prejudices  of 


viii  PREFACE 

the  times;  and  the  solemn  investigation  of  the  charge  that 
Senator  Poindexter  had  instigated  the  attempt  upon  the  life 
of  the  President  at  the  Capitol  discloses  the  morbidity  of  the 
partisan  madness.  Through  the  gossip  of  the  drawing-rooms, 
the  jottings  of  the  diaries,  the  editorial  comments  of  the  con 
temporary  press,  the  social  and  political  intrigues  of  women, 
the  attempt  is  made  to  re-create  something  of  the  atmosphere 
by  which  the  remarkable  statesmen  and  politicians  of  the 
Jackson  Administrations  were  affected. 

Generations  have  been  taught  to  respect  or  reverence  the 
memories  of  the  extraordinary  men  of  the  Thirties  who  rode 
on  the  whirlwind  to  direct  the  storms;  and,  their  human 
weaknesses  forgotten,  their  sinister,  selfish  purposes  ignored, 
their  moral  or  intellectual  limitations  overlooked,  they  seem, 
in  the  perspective  of  the  years,  stern,  austere,  always  sin 
cere,  and  singularly  free  from  the  vices  of  politicians,  as  we 
have  come  to  know  them  in  the  leaders  of  a  later  day.  And 
yet  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  creatures  more  thoroughly 
human  than  these  who  are  usually  presented  to  us  as  steel 
engravings,  hung  high  on  the  wall  in  a  dim  light.  They  move 
across  the  page  of  history  scarcely  touching  or  Buffering  the 
contamination  of  the  ground.  They  seem  to  play  their  parts 
4ipon  a  stage  impressive  and  imposing,  suspended  between 
earth  and  heaven.  That  they  lived  in  houses,  danced,  gam 
bled  and  drank,  flattered  and  flirted,  gossiped  and  lied,  in  a 
Washington  of  unpaved  streets  and  sticky  black  mud,  made 
their  way  to  night  conferences  through  dark,  treacherous 
thoroughfares,  and  played  their  brilliant  parts  in  a  bedrag 
gled,  village-like  capital,  is  not  apt  to  occur  to  one.  Thus,  in 
tracing  the  political  drama  of  this  portentous  period,  an 
attempt  is  made  to  facilitate  the  realization  that  they  were 
flesh  and  blood,  and  mere  men  to  their  contemporaries,  not 
always  heroic  or  even  admirable,  through  the  visualization 
of  the  daily  life  they  lived  in  a  capital  peculiarly  crude  and 
filled  with  grotesque  incongruities. 


PREFACE 


IX 


No  period  in  American  political  history  is  so  susceptible  to 
dramatization.  There  is  grim  tragedy  in  the  baffled  ambitions 
of  Calhoun  and  Clay;  romance  in  the  rise  of  Kendall  and 
the  fall  of  Mrs.  Eaton;  rich  comedy,  when  viewed  behind  the 
scenes,  in  the  lugubrious  procession  of  "distress  petitioners" 
trained  to  tears  by  the  art  of  Clay  and  the  money  of  Biddle; 
and  rollicking  farce  in  the  early  morning  flight  of  a  dismissed 
Cabinet  minister,  to  escape  the  apprehended  chastisement 
of  an  erstwhile  colleague  whose  wife's  good  name  had  been 
assailed. 

The  drama  of  party  politics,  with  its  motives  of  love,  hate, 
and  vaulting  ambition  —  such  is  the  unidealized  story  of  the 
epochal  period  when  the  iron  will  of  the  physically  feeble 
Jackson  dominated  the  life  of  the  Nation,  and  colored  the 

$UtefB?W 
UtriaJafml 


CONTENTS 

I.  THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES 

The  journey  from  Philadelphia  —  The  first  railroad  —  Com 
munication  with  the  West  —  First  impressions  of  visitors  — 
Hotels  —  Looking  for  lions  —  Trials  of  calling  —  Unpaved 
streets  —  Uncouth  appearance  of  town  —  Impressions  of  con 
temporaries  —  Surroundings  of  Capitol  —  Neighboring  quag 
mires  —  Cows  in  the  streets  —  Unlighted  thoroughfares  —  Ad 
vantages  of  Georgetown  —  Drives  and  walks  —  Arlington  — 
The  Tayloe  mansion — The  Van  Ness  mansion — Sight-seeing  — 
The  Capitol's  popularity  —  Society  in  Senate — In  House  —  In 
Supreme  Court  —  Manner  of  living  —  House  rent  —  Servant 
hire  —  Slaves  and  Southern  masters  —  Boarding-houses  — 
Congressional  messes  —  The  Woodbury  mess  —  The  law  of  the 
mess  —  Popularity  of  —  Adams  a  diner-out  —  Hospitality  of  the 
town  —  Miss  Martineau's  triumph  —  Ignorance  of  her  books  — 
Thomas  Hamilton's  experiences  —  Literary  celebrities  —  First 
society  letters  —  First  Washington  correspondents  —  Crude 
performances  in  Washington  theater  —  Booth's  appearances  — 
Fanny  Kemble's  —  Rules  and  prices  in  theater — Weather  post 
pones  performances  —  Traveling  circuses  —  The  race-course  — 
Cockfighting  —  Gambling  —  Heavy  drinking  —  Moral  laxity 

—  A  Washington  season  as  a  lark  —  Affectations  of  fashion  — 
Parisian  gowns  and  hats  —  Leading  shops  —  Daily  routine  of  a 
lady  of  fashion  —  Party  lines  in  society  —  Mrs.  Livingston's 
leadership — Mrs.  Stevenson — Mrs.  Woodbury — Mrs.  Forsyth 

—  Mrs.  Tayloe  —  Men's    styles  —  Conversationals  —  Formal 
ity  —  Pictures  of  Clay,  Webster,  and   Calhoun  in  society  — 
Day  of  gossip  —  Of  gallantry  —  Entertainments  —  Introduc 
tion    of    ice-cream  —  The    dances  —  Dense    crowds  —  Incon 
gruous  dresses  —  Diplomats  set  fast  pace  —  Events  at  Carusi's 

—  The   quiet   Sundays  —  Unhealthiness  —  Death-rate  —  The 
cholera  scourge. 

II.  THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  31 

The  scurrility  of  1828  —  Slander  of  Jackson  and  Adams  —  De 
mocracy  triumphs  —  Gloom  of  Whig  aristocracy  —  The  faithful 
march  on  the  capital  —  The  throne  room  at  Gadsby's  —  Jack 
son  receives  office-seekers  —  Politics  in  Cabinet  appointments 

—  Calhoun  confers  on  patronage  —  Jackson  ignores  Adams  — 


sii  CONTENTS 

King  Mob  at  the  inauguration  —  The  reaction  on  the  Cabinet 

—  Attempts  to  conciliate  the  disappointed  —  The  morbid  bit 
terness  of  Clay  —  Miniatures  of  the  Cabinet. 

III.  THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE  64 

Party  organization  and  the  spoils  system  —  Demands  on  Jack 
son  for  place  —  The  provocation  —  Jackson's  attitude  —  Van 
Buren's  doubts,  and  Lewis's  —  Kendall's  pain  —  The  harassed 
Cabinet  —  Ingham  and  Van  Buren  angrily  rebuke  Hoyt  — 
Terror  of  the  clerks  —  The  exaggerated  impression  of  the  dis 
missals —  The  "martyrs"  who  were  also  criminals  —  The 
Senate  launches  the  White  Terror  —  Rejection  of  the  nomina 
tions  of  Jackson's  newspaper  friends  —  John  Tyler's  part  in  it 

—  His  personal  and  political  character  —  Type  of  anti-Jackson 
Democrat  —  The  prejudice  against  "printers"    —  The  cases  of 
Lee,  of  Noah,  of  Kendall,  and  of  Hill  —  Effect  on  Jackson  — 
Hill  sent  to  Senate  that  rejected  him  —  Unprecedented  party 
bitterness  foreshadowed. 

IV.  JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN  88 

Political  significance  of  the  Jackson-Calhoun  quarrel  —  Calhoun 
turns  the  corner  —  His  previous  political  character  —  Effect 
upon  it  of  the  quarrel  —  Relations  of  Hayne-Webster  debate 
to  quarrel  —  Latter's  party  character  —  Jackson's  attitude  — 
Livingston  speaks  for  Administration  —  Nullifiers  miscalculate 
Jackson  —  The  Jefferson  dinner  —  Its  purpose  —  Jackson  ac 
cepts  the  challenge  —  His  toast  —  Effect  on  Calhoun  —  Jack 
son's  dinner  to  Monroe  —  Learns  of  Calhoun's  hostility 
in  Monroe's  Cabinet  —  Crawford's  statement  to  Forsyth  — 
Letter  of  Forsyth  is  shown  Lewis  —  Jackson  hears  of  it  and 
demands  it  —  Jackson  calls  on  Calhoun  for  explanation  — 
Latter's  reply  —  Jackson  breaks  —  Crawford's  character  and 
career  —  Calhoun's  desperate  efforts  to  extricate  himself  — 
Appeals  to  Adams  —  Latter's  notations  —  Calhoun's  pamphlet 

—  Newspaper  battle  —  Calhoun's  ambitions  wrecked. 

V.  MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET  116 

"  Peggy  "  O'Neal  —  Marriage  to  Eaton  —  Society  outraged  — 
Mrs.  Eaton  cut  by  Cabinet  ladies  —  Jackson's  indignation  and 
efforts  —  Van  Buren's  advantage  in  the  game  —  He  features 
"  Peggy  "  at  dinners  —  Cabinet  unable  to  confer  —  Van  Buren 
proposes  resignation  —  Jackson  plans  complete  reorganization 
of  Cabinet  —  Mrs.  Eaton's  attitude  —  Jackson's  interview 
with  Branch  —  How  new  Cabinet  was  formed  —  Branch  and 


CONTENTS  xiii 

Berrien  place  blame  on  "  Peggy  "  —  Mrs.  Ingham  tarred  by 
same  brush  —  Eaton's  pursuit  of,  Ingham  —  Latter's  early 
morning  flight  —  Portraits  of  Livingston,  Taney,  and  Cass  — 
A  Van  Buren  Cabinet. 

VI.  KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  144 

Dominance  of  Kitchen  Cabinet  —  Portrait  of  Amos  Kendall  — 
Harriet  Martineau's  impressions — Portrait  of  Major  Lewis  — 
Of  Isaac  Hill  —  Secret  of  partisan  bitterness  —  The  Marat  of 
the  Kitchen  Cabinet  —  The  establishment  of  the  "  Washington 
Globe"  —  Portrait  of  Frank  Blair  —  Relations  of  the  "Globe" 
to  the  President  —  To  the  National  Democracy  —  Considered 
the  Court  Journal  by  diplomats  —  Buchanan's  experience  with 
Nesselrode  in  Russia  —  The  specialties  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet 
members. 

VII.  CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  171 

Whigs  clamor  for  Senate  leadership  —  Clay  responds  —  Por 
trait  of  Clay  the  politician  —  Is  nominated  for  President  — 
Doubts  success  —  Hopes  to  carry  Pennsylvania  or  New  York 

—  His  battery  of  genius  in  the  Senate  —  \Vhig  advantage  in 
ability  in  the  House  —  The  rejection  of  Van  Buren's  nomi 
nation  as  Minister  to  Great  Britain  —  Its  motive  —  Its  stu 
pidity  —  Flimsy  nature  of  charges  —  "  Kill  a  Minister  to  make 
a   Vice-President"  — Character   of   John   M.   Clayton  —  He 
opens  attack  on  Post-Office  Department  —  His  open  appeal  to 
Calhoun  to  join  Opposition  —  Clay's  tariff  plans  —  Calls  con 
ference  at  Everett's  —  His  dogmatic  manner  —  Adams  unim 
pressed  —  Clay's  great  tariff  speech  —  Tyler's  reply  —  Impres 
sions  of  public  —  Failure  to  involve  Jackson  as  planned  — 
The  House  battle  —  The  dual  reference  —  Character  study  of 
Adams  —  Of  George  McDuffie  —  Adams  cooperates  with  Sec 
retary  McLane  —  Jackson  attempts  a  reconciliation  —  Cause 
of  failure  —  McDuffie's  bill  and  report  —  His  slashing  attack 
on  protection  —  Adams  reports  bill  based  on  Treasury  report 

—  Adams's  bill  passes  House  —  Amended  out  of  recognition 
by  Clay  protectionists  hi  Senate  —  Surrender  of  Senate  con 
ferees  —  The  politics  in  it  —  Clay's  fury  —  He  fails  to  make 
political  capital  —  Tariff  eliminated  from  campaign  —  Jack- 
sonians  take  offensive  —  Embarrass  Clay  on  land  question  —  Po 
litical  effect  in  new  States  —  Kitchen  Cabinet  makes  headway. 

III.  CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  201 

The  son  of  Alexander  Hamilton  —  His  intimacy  with  Jackson  — 
Phrases  first  attack  on  National  Bank  —  The  inspiration  of 


xiv  CONTENTS 

Jackson's  hostility  —  The  Mason  incident  —  Biddle's  flippant 
reply  to  Ingham  —  Kendall's  editorial  in  "New  York  Courier 
and  Enquirer"  —  Biddle's  alarm  —  His  attempts  to  conciliate 

—  His  contradictory  advice  and  information  —  The  strange  at 
titude  of  Major  Lewis  —  Clay  plans  to  drag  Bank  into  politics 
for  selfish  purposes  —  Treachery  of  Livingston  and  McLane  — 
Clay  urges  immediate  application  for  recharter  —  His  incon 
sistency  —  Jackson  prefers  to  postpone  Bank  issue  —  Reasons 

—  McLane's    embarrassing   report  —  Clay  presses  the  Bank 
to  act  —  Biddle  sends   agent  to  Washington  to  investigate  — 
Cadwalader's  conferences  —  Sees  selfish  political  aims  of  Clay 
and  Webster  —  His  conversion  to  Whig  plan  —  An  historical 
conference  —  Biddle  blackmailed  into  action  by  threats  of  Clay 
and  Webster  —  Application  presented  —  The  House  investi 
gates  the  Bank  —  Results  —  Political  effects  —  Biddle  takes 
charge  of  fight  in  Congress  —  Recharter  Bill  passes  —  Biddle 
and  Clay  expect  veto  —  Plan  to  make  Bank  the  campaign  issue 

—  Effect  on  Jackson  —  Authorship  of  Veto  Message  —  Van 
Buren's  midnight  conference  at  White  House  —  The  Veto  as  a 
campaign  document  —  Opinion  of  Biddle  —  Of  Clay's  organ  — 
Of  the  "Globe"  —  Both  parties  pleased  —  Senate  debate  on  the 
Veto  —  Webster's  speech  —  Arrays  Bank  against  Jackson  in 
appeal  to  the  people  —  Hugh  Lawson  White  accepts  the  issue  — 
Clay's  unworthy  performance  —  Benton's  reply  —  Clay  and 
Ben  ton  exchange  the  "lie"  —  The  issue  goes  to  the  people. 

IX.  THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832  \ 

New  campaign  methods  of  1832  —  Class  consciousness  aroused 
by  both  parties  —  The  intensive  use  of  the  press  —  Biddle  sub 
sidizes  newspapers  and  bribes  editors  —  Kendall's  campaign 
textbook  —  Clay's  intrigues  —  Negotiates  with  the  Nullifiers  — 
Calhoun's  strange  plan  considered  —  Coalition  of  Bank,  Whigs, 
and  Nullifiers  —  Blair  makes  the  most  of  it  —  Ties  the  Whigs 
to  Nullification  movement  —  Jackson  defies  the  Nullifiers  — 
Clay  intrigues  with  Anti-Masons  —  His  letters  —  Nomination 
of  Wirt  —  Latter's  political  relations  with  Clay  —  The  trick 
planned  for  New  York  —  Seward's  testimony  —  Jacksonians 
ignore  the  Anti-Masons  —  The  Bank  the  issue  —  Clay's  cam 
paign  plans  —  Bank's  corruption  of  the  press  —  Bank  resorts 
to  intimidation  and  coercion  —  Attempts  to  frighten  the  timid 

—  Circulation  of  stories  as  to  Jackson's  health  —  Blair  meets 
them  —  Stories  of  Jackson's  bloodthirstiness  revived — The 
anti-Jackson   cartoons  —  Kitchen    Cabinet    arouses    and  or 
ganizes  the  masses  —  Use  of  the  press  —  Intensive  organiza 
tion  —  Monster  meetings  of  Democrats  —  A  Jackson  parade 


CONTENTS  xv 

in  New  York  —  Hickory  poles  —  Glee  clubs  —  Songs  —  Dem 
onstration  for  Jackson  at  Lexington  —  Personalities  —  Chol 
era  plays  a  part  —  The  presidential  candidates  —  Jackson's 
confidence  —  Jacksonians  "on  the  turf"  —  Notable  Jackson 
victory  —  Ominous  action  of  South  Carolina. 

X.  THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION  252 

The  Nullifiers  win  in  South  Carolina  —  Jackson's  fury  — 
Hastens  to  the  capital  —  South  Carolina's  changed  views  — 
Calhoun's  exposition  —  Cavalier  vs.  Cavrlier  —  Calhoun's 
letter  to  Hamilton  —  Joel  Poinsett's  part  —  Jackson  energet 
ically  prepares  for  defense  —  Steps  taken  —  His  reliance  on 
public  opinion  —  His  caution  —  His  Proclamation  —  Drama  of 
its  preparation  —  Effect  on  public  —  Hayne's  reply  —  Clay's 
criticism  —  He  plays  to  Nullifiers  —  Effect  on  State-Rights 
Democrats  —  Ritchie's  straddle  in  Virginia  —  Tyler's  despair 

—  Jackson  has  Cass  prepare  appeal  to  Virginia  —  Purpose  to 
isolate  South  Carolina  —  Van  Buren's  embarrassment  —  Also 
straddles  on  Proclamation  —  Calhoun  disappointed  with  Proc 
lamation —  His   "death  march"  to  Washington  —  Drawing- 
room  sympathy  for  him  —  Takes  the  oath  as  Senator  —  Jack- 
son-Poinsett  correspondence  —  Jackson  asks  Congress  for  addi 
tional  powers  —  Calhoun's  agitation  —  The  Force  Bill  —  Tyler's 
attack  —  Appeal   to   Clay  —  Clay's  interest  in  Tyler's   reelec 
tion  —  Whig's    ungracious     support    of    Force    Bill  —  Clay 
ton's  speech  —  Bitterness  of  debate  —  Poindexter  and  Grundy 

—  Jackson  clears  decks  for  action  —  Webster  asked  to  lead 
debate  for   Administration  —  Livingston's   call   upon  him  — 
Calhoun's    speech  —  Webster's    reply  —  His    relations    with 
White  House  —  Jackson's  delight  —  Jacksonian  cultivation  of 
Webster  —  Calhoun  concerned  —  Whig,  Bank,  and  Nullifica 
tion  combination  —  Dangers  to  the  tariff  —  Clayton's  proposal 
to  Clay  —  The  politics  in  Compromise  Tariff  of  1833  —  Calhoun 
hears  from  Jackson  —  Clay's  Tariff  Bill  —  Tyler's  delight  — 
Jackson's  disgust  over  the  unholy  alliance  —  Clay's  frankness 

—  Force   Bill   passes  —  Clayton   whips   Calhoun  —  Effect  of 
Cass's  letter  to  Virginia  —  Nullification  Ordinance  rescinded  — 
Political  effects  of  fight  —  The  drama  of  the  last  night  of  the 
session. 

XI.  JACKSON  vs.  BIDDLB  287 

Cabinet  reorganization  —  Duane  becomes  Secretary  of  Treas 
ury  —  His  reputation  and  party  standing  —  Jackson's  New 
England  tour  —  Plans  removal  of  deposits  —  Consults  Hamil- 


xvi  CONTENTS 

ton  in  New  York  —  Conversion  of  Van  Buren  —  The  Bank's 
cockiness  over  accession  of  Nullifiers  —  Blair  makes  the  most  of 
the  coalition  —  Kendall's  reasons  for  immediate  action  —  Con 
servatives  of  Cabinet  alarmed  —  Kendall  attempts  to  convince 
McLane  —  Van  Buren  rebuked  by  Kendall  —  Jackson  polls  the 
Cabinet  —  Kitchen  Cabinet's  continuous  sessions  —  Debate  on 
the  time  for  removal  —  Kitchen  Cabinet  favors  recess  action 

—  Conservatives    would    postpone    until    Congress    meets  — 
Duane's  strange  reticence  —  Jackson  presses  him  for  decision  — 
Kendall's  mission  —  His  experiences  with  politicians  en  route  — 
Newspapers  open  fight  —  Jackson  perfects  his  plans  at  Rip  Raps 

—  Van  Buren  hard  pressed  —  Taney  moves  to  Jackson's  side  — 
Jackson's  Paper  to  the  Cabinet  —  McLane  and  Cass  threaten 
to  resign  —  Benton's  delight  —  Duane's  many  letters  of  pro 
test  —  Is    dismissed  —  Taney    assumes    command  —  Webster 
advises  a  "disciplining"  of  the  people  —  The  Bank  plans  a 
panic  —  Its  methods  and  results  —  Clay  advises  distress  meet 
ings  and  petitions  —  Political  purpose  —  Jackson  and  distress 
committees  —  Reaction  against  Bank  —  New  leaders — Ben- 
ton  —  Preston  —  Leigh. 

XII.  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS  322 

Bitter  battle  in  Congress  —  Clay  leads  onslaught  —  Calls  for 
Paper  read  to  Cabinet  —  Forsyth  kills  the  effect  —  Senate 
rejects  Government  directors  on  Biddle's  demand  —  Webster 
reminds  Biddle  of  his  retainer  —  Attempt  to  exclude  Lewis 
from  Senate  —  Webster  appeals  to  Story  for  opinion  —  Lat- 
ter's  reply  —  Clay  appeals  to  Tazewell  —  Is  rebuked  —  In 
tense  interest  in  congressional  battle  —  Distress  oratory  — 
Forsyth's  cynicism  —  Jacksonians  counter  with  memorials  — 
Whig  mob-baiters  sent  to  country  to  continue  the  excitement  — 
Clay's  censure  resolution  —  His  bitter  speech  —  Speeches  of 
Preston,  Benton,  Calhoun,  Forsyth,  and  Webster,  —  Clay's  mo 
tive  —  Webster's  disgust  over  Clay's  plan  —  Proposes  com 
promise  recharter  plan  —  His  speech  —  Calhoun  presents 
another  —  Bank  champions  divided  —  Clay's  fury  over  Web 
ster's  independent  action  —  Forces  Webster  to  kill  his  own  bill 

—  Forsyth  makes  the  record  clear  —  Clay's  attempt  to  in 
volve  Van  Buren  —  His  histrionic  appeal  —  Van  Buren  makes 
it  ridiculous  —  Censure  passed  —  Jackson's  spirited  Protest  — 
Effect  on  masses  —  Reception  in   Senate  —  Forsyth's  clever 
move  to  pass  the  issue  to  the  people  —  Protest  rejected  — 
Battle  in  the  House  —  Adams's  activities  —  Horace  Binney  — 
The   debate  —  Blair's   attack   on   Judge   Hopkinson  —  Bank 
investigation   ordered  —  Farcical  nature  —  Clay's   resolution 


CONTENTS  xvii 

orders  restoration  of  deposits  —  Debate  —  Senate  rejects  nomi 
nations  of  Stevenson  and  Taney. 

XIII.  POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  354 

Whigs  determine  to  win  in  New  York  City  election  —  Lewis's 
advice  to  Hamilton  —  Mayoralty  nominees  make  Bank  the 
issue  —  Mixed  result  —  Whig  celebration  at  Castle  Garden 

—  Democrats  celebrate  inauguration  of  anti-Bank  mayor  — 
The  fall  elections  —  The  Whigs  take  their  name  —  Forsyth's 
sharp  comment  —  The  hotch-potch    combination  —  Jackson 
visits  the  Hermitage  —  His  confidence  —  Cabinet  changes  — 
Whigs    impatient    of    Bank    issue  —  Biddle's    indignation  — 
Jackson's  triumph  in  New  Jersey  —  Wrhigs  redouble  efforts  in 
New  York  —  Liberty  poles  —  Mobs  in  Philadelphia  —  The  Vir 
ginia  campaign  —  Leigh  reflected  through  a  betrayal  —  Effect 

—  Poindexter  defeated  in  Mississippi  —  Whigs  accept  result  as 
defeat  —  Weed  dumps  the  Bank  —  Webster  abandons  it  — 
Clay  tired  of  its  troubles  —  Effect  on  politics  of  Bank  fight  — 
Bitter  congressional  session  of  December,  1834  —  Attacks  on 
Post-Office    Department  —  Instructions    from    legislatures   to 
expunge  censure  —  Effect  on  Whigs  —  Post-Office  scandal  — 
Kendall   made    Postmaster-General  —  What    he   found,    and 
did  —  Mrs.  Eaton  tries  a  bribe  —  Attempt  to  assassinate  Jack 
son  —  Poindexter  accused  —  His  character  and  career  —  His 
quarrel  with  Jackson  —  Demands  an  investigation  —  Is  ex 
onerated  —  Calhoun's  fight  on  Federal  patronage  —  Its  politi 
cal  purpose  —  Debate  —  Democrats  celebrate  wiping  out  of 
national  debt  —  Whig  Senators  refuse  to  buy  paintings  for 
President's  house. 

XIV.  WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  THE  FRENCH  CRISIS  386 

The  French  indemnity  treaty  —  French  indifference  to  the  ob 
ligation  —  Jackson  determines  to  enforce  treaty  —  Portrait  of 
John  Forsyth  —  Livingston  sent  to  Paris  —  Real  cause  of  diffi 
culty  there  —  Chamber  again  fails  to  appropriate  —  King  sends 
regrets  and  assurances  —  Chamber  again  fails  —  Livingston  ad 
vises  show  of  spirit  in  Presidential  Message  —  Jackson's  Message 

—  Whig  embarrassment,  and  criticism  —  Message  reaches  Paris 

—  Livingston  presents  copy  to  de  Rigny  —  King  recalls  French 
Minister  —  Livingston's  tact  —  Whigs  plan  to  isolate  Jackson 

—  Whig    papers    apologize    to    France  —  Foreign    Relations 
Committee  of  Senate  packed  against  Jackson  —  Blair's  protest 

—  Clay's  report  —  Circulated  as  political  document  to  isolate 
the  President  —  Clay  suggests  France  may  ask  apology  from  / 


xviii  CONTENTS 

Jackson  —  Buchanan  explains  the  Paris  state  of  mind  —  De 
fends  Message  —  Senate  passes  Clay's  resolution  —  "Intelli 
gencer"  calls  it  to  attention  of  France  —  Livingston's  spirited 
reply  to  de  Rigny  —  Approved  by  Jackson,  Van  Buren,  and 
Forsyth  —  Serurier  refused  audience  by  Forsyth  —  War  clouds 
lower  —  Strange  happenings  in  French  Legation  —  House  con 
siders  crisis  —  Adams's  attitude  —  Pays  tribute  to  Jackson's 
spirit  —  The  amazing  debate  —  Adams  protests  against  trib 
utes  to  France  —  Amendment  to  Fortifications  Bill  —  Whig 
filibuster  against  it  —  The  Nation  naked  to  its  foe  —  The  Whig 
jubilation  —  French  Chamber  authorizes  payment  conditional 
on  an  apology  from  Jackson  —  Livingston  leaves  Paris  —  Mrs. 
Barton  and  Madame  Pageot  —  Livingston's  tumultuous  ova 
tions  in  New  York  —  Forsy  th's  instructions  to  Barton  —  Dip 
lomatic  relations  broken—  "Oil  or  water?"  —  Livingston 
advises  moderate  tone  for  Message  —  The  Message  —  Public 
indignation  over  failure  of  Fortifications  Bill  —  Blair  fans  the 
flame  —  Approach  of  French  squadron  —  Webster  defends 
Senate  and  attacks  House  —  Adams  and  Webster  —  Adams's 
spectacular  reply  —  Democrats  follow  Adams's  lead  —  English 
offer  of  mediation  —  Terms  of  acceptance  —  France  recedes  — 
Jackson's  triumph  —  Effect  on  America's  prestige  in  world. 

XV.  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION  423 

Van  Buren  the  heir  apparent  —  Senator  White's  disaffection  — 
Whig  plan  to  use  him  —  Clay's  plan  of  campaign  —  Whig  sneers 
at  Mrs.  White  —  Blair's  rebuke  —  The  schism  of  Tennessee 
Democrats  —  Polk  leads  for  Van  Buren  —  White  wins  — 
Portrait  of  White  —  Kitchen  Cabinet's  attack  on  him  —  Also 
determines  to  retire  Bell  from  Speakership  —  "Globe's"  attacks 
on  latter  —  Baltimore  Convention  —  New  York  and  Virginia 
combination  broken  —  Van  Buren's  reconciliation  visit  to 
Castle  Hill  —  Whig  confusion  —  Clay  sulks  —  His  complaint  — 
Slavery  question  in  campaign  —  Attempts  to  turn  slave  States 
against  Van  Buren  —  Davy  Crockett's  biography  of  Van 
Buren  —  Holland's  —  Adams's  comment  —  Van  Buren's  seren 
ity  —  Congress  convenes  —  Bell  defeated  —  Van  Buren's  tooth 
ache  —  WThig  fight  on  Taney  —  Whig  Senators  harassed  by 
instructions  from  home  —  The  embarrassment  of  Virginia 
Whigs  —  Ritchie's  mirth  —  Calhoun's  fight  against  abolition 
literature  in  mail  —  Purpose  to  embarrass  Van  Buren  —  Latter's 
friends  "play  politics"  —  Calhoun's  extreme  bill  —  Its  partisan 
motive  —  Tie  votes  —  Van  Buren  does  not  dodge  —  Calhoun's 
bitter  reference  to  Jackson  —  White's  bitter  attack  —  Cal 
houn's  insult  to  Van  Buren  —  Congress  adjourns  —  Issues  of 


CONTENTS  xix 

1836  —  Adams's  contempt  for  all  the  candidates  —  Enthusiasm 
for  Jackson  continues  —  Whig  depression  —  Newspaper  battles 

—  Clay's  sulking  —  His  one  speech  —  Jackson's  electioneering 

—  White's  campaign  speech  —  Results  of  election  —  Their  sig 
nificance. 

XVI.  TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  457 

Jackson's  illness  —  Whigs  attack  him  while  down  —  He  fights 
back  —  House  Whigs'  last  effort  against  Whitney  —  Jacksoni- 
ans  turn  the  tables  —  Threats  of  murder  —  Peyton  and  Wise  — 
Benton  plans  to  expunge  —  His  speech  —  Bitter  replies  —  The 
conference  at  Boulanger's  —  Refreshments  in  Benton's  com 
mittee  room  —  Clay's  theatrical  speech  —  Scenes  in  Senate 
Chamber  —  Webster's  protest  —  Benton  wins  —  Dramatic  sit 
uation  —  The  mob  in  the  gallery  —  Benton's  friends  arm  — 
Mrs.  Benton's  alarm  —  The  Clay -Benton  altercation  —  Jack 
son  dines  his  friends  —  Last  days  in  WThite  House  —  His  Fare 
well  Address  —  Its  real  significance  —  His  last  reception  — 
Jackson  the  Man  —  White  House  memories  and  women  —  The 
inauguration  of  Van  Buren  —  Jackson  the  central  figure  — 
Homage  of  the  multitude  —  Last  night  in  the  White  House  — 
The  last  conference  at  Blair's  —  The  end  of  the  "  Reign." 

BOOKS,  PAPERS,  AND  MANUSCRIPTS  CITED  AND  CON 
SULTED  481 

INDEX  489 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

ANDREW  JACKSON  Steel  engraving  frontispiece 

From  a  painting  by  Ralph  Earl. 

MARTIN  VAN  BUREN  54 

From  a  photograph  by  Brady  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frederick  Hill 
Meserve. 

THOMAS  HART  BENTON  54 

From  a  photograph  by  Brady  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frederick  Hill 
Meserve. 

MRS.  JOHN  H.  EATON  (PEGGY  O'NEAL)  118 

From  a  photograph  by  Brady. 

EDWARD  LIVINGSTON  184 

From  the  bust  by  Ball  Hughes. 

AMOS  KENDALL  144 

From  an  engraving  in  the  Democratic  Review,  1838. 

FRANCIS  P.  BLAIR  162 

From  an  engraving  by  Sartain  in  the  Democratic  Review,  1845,  after  a 
painting  by  T.  Sully. 

ROGER  B.  TANEY  162 

From  a  photograph  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frederick  Hill  Meserve. 

WILLIAM  B.  LEWIS  162 

From  a  photograph  reproduced  in  S.  G.  HeiskelTs  Andrew  Jackson  and 
Early  Tennessee  History 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  172 

From  an  engraving  in  the  Democratic  Review,  1843,  after  a  miniature  by 
Blanchard. 

HENRY  CLAY  172 

From  the  portrait  by  Marchant  in  the  State  Department,  Washington. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER  172 

From  the  collection  of  Mr.  Frederick  Hill  Meserve. 

NICHOLAS  BIDDLE  212 

From  a  painting  by  Thomas  Sully. 

JOHN  FORSYTH  386 

From  a  lithograph,  by  courtesy  of  Mr.  Waddy  B.  Wood,  of  Washing 
ton,  D.C. 


THE  PARTY  BATTLES 

OF  THE 
JACKSON  PERIOD 

•     • 

• 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES 

THE  tourist  traveling  from  Philadelphia  to  Washington  in 
the  Thirties  anticipated  few  pleasures  and  no  comforts  from 
the  trip  that  had  to  be  made  by  coach  from  Baltimore,  over 
roads  intolerably  wretched  under  the  best  conditions,  and 
all  but  impassable  and  not  without  dangers  in  inclement 
weather.  The  journey  from  Philadelphia  to  Baltimore  was 
usually  made  by  boat  through  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware 
Canal,  and  the  entire  trip,  in  winter  one  of  exposure,  required 
the  greater  part  of  two  days.1  The  fare  from  Baltimore  to 
Washington  was  four  dollars.  Sometimes  the  ruts  in  the 
winter  roads  would  overturn  the  coach,  throwing  the  passen 
gers  into  the  mire,  and  occasionally  resulting  in  sprains  and 
broken  bones.2  Later  in  Jackson's  time,  the  Baltimore  & 
Ohio  Railroad  was  built,  with  a  branch  into  Washington,  and 
when  the  first  cars,  drawn  by  horses,  reached  the  country- 
town  capital,  the  enthusiastic  statesmen  felt  that  the  prob 
lem  of  transportation  had  been  solved.  Urging  Butler  to 
accept  the  attorney-generalship,  and  stressing  the  fact  that 
acceptance  would  not  preclude  his  appearance  in  personal 
cases  in  New  York  and  Albany,  Van  Buren  made  much  of  the 
fact  that  "to  the  former  place  you  will  next  season  be  able  to 

1  Life  of  Binney,  104. 

2  Benton's  explanation  of  the  delay  of  the  Bank  messenger  with  the  petition  for  a 
recharter.   Thirty  Years'  View. 


2     PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

go  in  fifteen  hours,  and  to  the  latter  in  a  day  and  a  night."  l 
Blair,  of  the  "Globe,"  boasted  after  the  election  of  1832  that 
"in  eighf)  days  and  nights  after  the  closing  of  the  polls  in 
Ohio,  the*  result  was  known  in  the  city  of  Washington  from 
all  the  organized  counties  except  three."  This,  he  declared, 
"is  an  instance  of  rapid  communication  from  the  West  un 
paralleled  in  this  country."^/ 

The  foreigner,  expecting  a  national  capital  more  or  less 
pretentious  and  compact,  was  invariably  shocked  on  entering 
the  environs  over  miserable  mud  roads,  to  find  only  an  occa 
sional  drab  hut  or  cottage  at  wide  intervals.  Usually,  until 
the  Capitol  attracted  his  attention,  he  was  wholly  uncon 
scious  of  his  arrival  at  his  destination.  One  of  these,  who  has 
left  a  record  of  his  visit,  relates  that  he  was  "looking  from  the 
window  of  his  coach  in  a  sort  of  brown  study,  at  fields  covered 
with  snow,"  when  a  fellow  passenger  startled  him  with  the 
inquiry  as  to  how  he  liked  Washington. 

"I  will  tell  you  when  I  see  it,"  he  replied. 

"Why,  you  have  been  in  Washington  the  last  quarter  of 
an  hour,"  was  the  rejoinder.3 

Another  famous  visitor  "was  taken  by  surprise"  on  finding 
herself  within  the  shadow  of  the  hall  of  the  lawmakers,  "so 
sordid  are  the  enclosures  and  houses  on  its  very  verge."  4 

But  as  the  coach  wound  round  the  Capitol,  and  swung 
with  a  merry  clatter  into  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  the  houses 
at  more  frequent  intervals  and  connected  shops  disclosed 
the  town.  With  a  characteristic  "clatter  and  clamp," 6 
with  a  gay  cracking  of  whips,  the  coach  would  splash  and 
rumble  up  to  one  of  the  leading  hotels,  and  the  cramped 
and  weary  tourist  would  joyously  take  leave  of  the  convey 
ance  and  seek  lodgment  within. 

1  Van  Buren  to  Butler,  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  by  Butler,  39-43. 

2  Washington  Globe,  Nov.  17,  1832. 

8  Thomas  Hamilton,  Men  and  Manners  in  America,  14. 

4  Harriet  Martineau,  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  I,  143. 

5  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  47.    , 


THE   WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES        3 

If  well  advised,  he  would  instruct  the  coachman  to  drop 
him  at  Gadsby  Js,  then  the  most  popular  and  comfortable 
hostelry  in  town,  on  the  Avenue,  a  short  distance  from  the 
Capitol.1  There  he  would  find,  not  only  a  clean  bed,  but 
excellent  service  and  a  lordly  hospitality  from  the  host. 
Gadsby,  for  his  generation,  was  a  genius  at  his  trade.  He 
moved  his  small  army  of  negro  servants  with  military  pre 
cision.  "Who  that  ever  knew  the  hospitalities  of  this  gentle 
manly  and  most  liberal  Boniface,"  wrote  one  who  enjoyed 
them,  "can  ever  forget  his  urbane  manner,  his  careful  atten 
tion  to  his  guests,  his  well-ordered  house,  his  fine  old  wines, 
and  the  princely  manner  in  which  he  could  send  his  bottle 
of  choice  Madeira  to  some  old  friend  or  favored  guest  at  the 
table  ?"2  It  was  not  always,  however,  that  accommodations 
could  be  found  at  Gadsby  5s,  and  then  the  tourist  would  seek 
the  Indian  Queen  at  the  sign  of  the  luridly  painted  picture  of 
Pocahontas,  where  he  would  be  met  at  the  curb  by  Jesse 
Brown,  the  landlord.3  Here,  for  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  a  day, 
he  could  not  only  find  a  pleasant  room,  but  a  table  loaded 
with  decanters  of  brandy,  rum,  gin,  at  short  intervals  from 
the  head  to  the  foot.  If  the  host  of  the  Indian  Queen  lacked 
the  lordly  elegance  of  Gadsby,  he  made  up  for  it  in  the 
homely  virtues  of  hospitality.  Wearing  a  large  white  apron, 
he  met  his  guests  at  the  door  of  the  dining-room,  and  then 
hastened  to  the  head  of  the  table  where  he  personally  carved 
and  helped  to  serve  the  principal  dish.4  If  this,  too,  was 
crowded,  the  tourist  would  try  Fuller's  near  the  White 
House,6  where  a  room  would  be  found  for  him  either  in  the 
hotel  proper,  or  in  one  of  the  two  or  three  houses  adjoining, 
which  had  been  converted  into  an  annex.8 

Having  rested  from  his  journey  and  removed  the  stains  of 
travel,  if  he  were  a  person  of  some  importance,  and  especially 

1  The  present  site  of  the  National  Hotel.  4  Perley's  Reminiscences,  i,  43. 

2  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  53-54.         6  Present  site  of  the  Wtllard. 

*  On  the  site  of  the  present  Metropolitan.  e  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  48. 


4  PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

a  foreigner,  he  would  be  speedily  deluged  with  the  cards  of 
callers  anxious  to  make  his  sojourn  pleasant.  Day  by  day 
the  hotel  registers  were  eagerly  scanned  for  the  names  of 
visiting  celebrities,  for  the  Washington  of  the  Thirties  loved 
its  lions  and  lionesses.  No  possible  person  was  ever  neglected, 
and  real  personages  were  feted,  wined,  and  dined.  But  not 
until  he  set  forth  to  return  the  calls  would  he  appreciate  the 
Portuguese  Minister's  description  of  the  capital  as  "  a  city  of 
magnificent  distances."  Inquiring  at  the  hotel  how  to  reach 
the  residences  of  his  callers,  he  would  be  not  a  little  puzzled 
at  the  nonchalant  reply  that  the  coachmen  "knew  where  all 
the  prominent  people  live."  Engaging  a  coach,  he  would  set 
forth  gayly,  in  the  confident  expectation  of  leaving  his  card 
at  from  thirty  to  forty  houses  in  the  course  of  the  day.  A 
short  drive  would  take  him  to  the  end  of  the  macadamized 
pavement  of  the  Avenue,  and  thereafter  for  hours,  pitching 
and  plunging,  over  the  ruts  and  the  mud-holes,  through 
miry  lanes,  and  across  vacant  lots,  shaken  in  body,  and  sore 
in  spirit,  he  would  find  by  evening  that  he  had  reached  six  or 
seven  of  the  forty  houses,  and  was  charged  by  the  coachman 
at  a  rate  "which  would  keep  a  chariot  and  two  posters  for 
twice  the  time  in  London."1  In  the  course  of  a  week  he  would 
find  that  he  had  spent  as  much  as  thirty  dollars  for  coach 
hire  —  by  odds,  the  most  expensive  feature  of  his  Washing 
ton  sojourn.  An  English  visitor,  startled  at  the  cost  of  travel, 
contracted  with  a  coachman  for  services  from  five  o'clock  to 
daylight  for  twenty  dollars,  but  after  having  attended  five 
parties  on  the  first  evening,  the  morose  driver  repudiated  his 
contract,  and  it  was  necessary  to  add  five  dollars  to  retain 
his  services.2  "I  should  imagine  [Washington]  to  be  the  very 
paradise  of  hackney  coachmen,"  wrote  one  disgusted  visitor. 
"If  these  men  do  not  get  rich  it  must  be  owing  to  some 
culpable  extravagance,  for  their  vehicles  are  in  continual 

.  x  N.  P.  Willis,  American  Scenery,  in,  49. 

2  Men  and  Manners  in  America,  20,  note. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES         5 

demand  from  the  hour  of  dinner  l  till  five  in  the  morning,  and 
long  distances  and  heavy  charges  are  all  in  their  favor."  2 

As  the  visitor  drove  about  the  town  he  found  nothing  in 
the  physical  aspects  of  the  country-town  capital  to  indicate 
that  L  'Enfant  ever  had  a  vision  or  produced  a  plan  for  a  city 
beautiful.  Because  real  estate  dealers  had  quarreled  over  the 
location  of  public  buildings,  the  selection  of  the  hill  for  the 
Capitol  had  led  to  the  location  of  the  White  House  a  mile  or 
more  to  the  west,  and  for  three  decades  the  problem  of  build 
ing  a  compact  city  between  the  two  had  failed.  The  streets 
were  all  unpaved  when  Jackson  was  first  inaugurated,  and 
only  Pennsylvania  Avenue  between  the  Capitol  and  the 
President's  Mansion  had  been  rescued  from  the  mire  when  he 
left  office.  Hub-deep  in  mud  in  inclement  weather,  these 
country  roads  sent  forth  great  clouds  of  dust  on  dry  and 
sunny  days.  With  the  exception  of  the  Avenue,  not  a  single 
street  approached  compactness,  the  houses  on  all  other  streets 
being  occasionally  grouped,  but  generally  widely  separated, 
and  in  some  instances  so  much  so  as  to  suggest  country  houses 
with  their  shade  trees  and  vegetable  gardens.3  "It  looks  as  if 
it  had  rained  naked  buildings  upon  an  open  plain,  and  every 
man  had  made  a  street  in  reference  to  his  own  door,"  wrote 
Nathaniel  P.  Willis,  who  knew  his  Washington.4  Another 
writer  of  the  day  who  was  impressed  with  "the  houses 
scattered  in  straggling  groups,  three  in  one  quarter,  and  half 
a  dozen  in  another,"  was  moved  to  compassion  for  "some 
disconsolate  dwelling,  the  first  or  last  born  of  a  square  or 
crescent,  yet  in  nebulous  suffering  like  an  ancient  maiden  in 
the  mournful  solitude  of  single  blessedness."  5  Still  another 
contemporary  word  painter  tells  us  that  even  on  the  Avenue 
"the  buildings  were  standing  with  wide  spaces  between,  like 
the  teeth  of  some  superannuated  crone."  6 


1  Four  o'clock.  2  Men  and  Manners,  20. 

8  Frederick  Seward's  Reminiscences,  17-19.          4  American  Scenery,  in,  49. 
6  Men  and  Manners,  17.  o  pw&&.  Men  and  Events,  i,  54. 


6  PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

At  the  foot  of  the  Capitol,  itself  beautiful  even  then,  were 
desolate  waste  lands  being  reserved  for  some  ultimate  Bo 
tanical  Gardens,  and  a  few  miserable  shack-like  boarding- 
houses.1  "Everybody  knows  that  Washington  has  a  capitol," 
wrote  a  satirical  English  observer,  "but  the  misfortune  is 
that  the  capitol  wants  a  city.  There  it  stands,  reminding  you 
of  a  general  without  an  army,  only  surrounded  and  followed 
by  a  parcel  of  ragged  little  dirty  boys;  for  such  is  the  appear 
ance  of  the  dirty,  straggling,  ill-built  houses  which  lie  at  the 
foot  of  it."  2  Where  the  Smithsonian  Institution  has  long 
stood  were  innumerable  quagmires  reeking  with  miasma.3 
About  the  President's  Mansion,  a  few  pretentious  houses, 
several  still  handsome  homes  after  almost  a  century,  had 
been  built,  and  in  this  section,  and  in  Georgetown,  lived  the 
people  of  fashion  and  the  diplomats.  "The  Co't  end,"  it 
was  called.  At  the  four  corners  of  the  Mansion  of  the  Presi 
dents  stood  the  plain  brick  buildings  occupied  by  the  State, 
Treasury,  War,  and  Navy  Departments.  On  Capitol  Hill 
a  few  good  houses  had  been  erected,  especially  on  North  A 
and  New  Jersey  Avenue,  South.  Other  than  these,  and  those 
west  of  the  White  House,  there  was  little  but  pastures  and 
enclosed  fields  in  the  eastern,  southeastern,  and  northeastern 
sections  of  the  town.4  East  of  Fourteenth  Street,  on  the 
north  side,  but  few  houses  had  been  built  beyond  F  Street, 
and  the  "country  home"  of  William  H.  Crawford,  at  the 
northeast  corner  of  Fourteenth  Street  and  Massachusetts 
Avenue,  was  still  considered  as  remote  from  town  as  on  that 
winter  day  after  his  defeat  for  the  Presidency  when  no  callers 
were  expected  because  of  the  heavy  snow.5 

Looking  down  upon  the  little  town  from  the  skylight  of  the 
Capitol,  Harriet  Martineau  could  plainly  discern  the  "seven 
theoretical  avenues,"  but  with  the  exception  of  Pennsyl- 

i  American  Scenery,  n,  55.  !  Captain  Marryat,  A  Diary  in  America,  163. 

8  Public  Men  and  Events,  I,  55.       4  Public  Men  and  Events,  I,  54. 
*  Life  of  Crawford,  183. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES         7 

vania,  all  were  "bare  and  forlorn,"  and  the  city  which  has 
become  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  impressive  in  the 
world  could  then  present  to  the  naked  eye  only  "a  few  mean 
houses  dotted  about,  the  sheds  of  the  navy  yard  on  one  bank 
of  the  Potomac,  and  three  or  four  villas  on  the  other."  x 
With  the  streets  full  of  ruts,  the  sidewalks  dotted  with  pools 
of  muddy  water,  or  in  places  overgrown  with  grass,  with 
cows  pasturing  on  many  of  the  streets  now  lined  with  elegant 
homes,  and  challenging  the  right  of  way  with  Marshall  or 
Clay  or  Jackson,  it  is  not  surprising  that  foreigners,  even  as 
late  as  the  Thirties,  were  moved  to  imitate  the  sarcasm  of 
Tom  Moore.  The  difficulties  of  locomotion  kept  the  pedes 
trian's  eyes  upon  the  ground,  and  the  inconveniences,  in 
making  calls,  of  crossing  ditches  and  stiles,  and  walking 
alternately  upon  grass  and  pavement,  and  striking  across 
fields  to  reach  a  street,  were  more  noticeable  than  the  noble 
trees  that  lined  the  avenues.2  Wretched  enough  in  the  day 
time,  the  poorly  lighted  streets  at  night  were  utterly  impos 
sible.  "As  for  lights,"  wrote  a  contemporary,  "if  the  pedes 
trian  did  not  provide  and  carry  his  own,  he  was  in  danger 
of  discovering  every  mud-hole  and  sounding  its  depths." 3 
More  nearly  possible  to  the  fastidious  were  the  narrower 
streets  of  Georgetown,  with  its  more  imposing  and  interesting 
houses,  and  more  select  society,  where  many  of  the  statesmen 
lived,  and  not  a  few  of  the  Government  clerks,  who  rode 
horseback  to  the  departments  in  the  morning. 

Even  in  the  Thirties  there  were  many  beautiful  drives  and 
walks  in  the  vicinity  of  Washington,  and  a  few  houses  that 
were  impressive  to  even  the  most  critical  English  visitor. 
Visible  for  many  miles,  and  easily  seen  from  the  town,  loomed 
the  pillared  white  mansion  of  Arlington,  then  the  home  of 
George  Washington  Custis,  to  which  many  of  the  aristocrats 
of  the  capital  frequently  found  their  way.  There,  during  the 

1  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  1. 160.  *  Ibid.,  I,  144. 

. 8  Public  Men  and  Events,  I,  54. 


8    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Jacksonian  period,  Robert  E.  Lee,  standing  in  the  room, 
whence,  across  the  river,  he  could  see  the  Capitol  building, 
was  united  in  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  the  house.1  Within 
the  city  the  most  imposing  mansions  were  those  of  John 
Tayloe,  at  Eighteenth  Street  and  New  York  Avenue,  de 
signed  by  Thornton,  and  even  then  rich  in  political  and  social 
memories,2  and  the  handsome  residence  of  John  Van  Ness, 
the  work  of  Latrobe,  built  at  a  cost  of  sixty  thousand  dollars 
to  make  a  fit  setting  for  the  charm  and  beauty  of  Marcia 
Burns,  at  the  foot  of  Seventeenth  Street,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Potomac.  From  the  doorstep  the  master  and  his  guests 
could  watch  the  ships  from  across  the  sea  mooring  to  the 
docks  of  Alexandria,  and  the  merchantmen,  bound  for  the 
port  of  Georgetown,  laden  with  the  riches  of  the  West  Indies. 
The  tourist  in  the  Washington  of  the  Thirties  did  not  have 
the  opportunity  for  sight-seeing  that  means  so  much  to  the 
capital  visitor  of  to-day.  Aside  from  the  Capitol  and  the 
White  House,  there  were  no  public  buildings  of  architectural 
distinction.  The  churches  had  "nothing  about  them  to 
attract  attention,"  and  while  St.  John's  on  Lafayette 
Square  was  then  summoning  to  worship,  it  did  not  at  that 
time  have  the  virtue  of  quaintness  or  the  mellowness  of 
historical  memories.  A  visit  to  the  Patent  Office  was  cus 
tomarily  made,  and  most  tourists  found  something  to  interest 
them  in  the  museum  of  the  State  Department,  with  its  por 
traits  of  the  Indian  chiefs  who  had  visited  Washington.3 
Occasionally  the  venturesome  would  ascend  to  the  skylight 
of  the  Capitol  to  survey  the  straggling  and  dreary  town  from 
the  height.4  But  always  there  was  the  dignified  and  stately 
white  building  of  the  lawmakers  and  of  the  Supreme  Court, 

1  Godfrey  T.  Vigne,  in  Six  Months  in  America,  thought  that  "in  the  distance" 
Arlington  "has  the  appearance  of  a  superior  English  country  residence." 

2  The  Octagon  House  still  standing  and  being  preserved  by  the  Institute  of  Amer 
ican  Architects. 

3  Men  and  Manners,  75. 

4  Miss  Martineau  tells  of  visits  to  the  museum  and  the  skylight,  i,  159. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES         9 

and  thither  tourists  and  citizens,  men  and  women,  daily 
found  their  way  for  the  entertainment  that  never  failed. 
Surrounded  by  its  terraces,  its  well-kept  lawns,  its  profusion 
of  shrubbery,  the  visitor  reached  the  entrance  over  its  "beau 
tifully  gravelled  walks,"  1  and  entered  the  rotunda  with  its 
four  Trumbull  paintings  of  Revolutionary  scenes,  to  be  more 
impressed  with  the  vacant  spaces  for  four  more,  and  the 
explanation  that  "  Congress  cannot  decide  on  what  artist  to 
confer  the  honor." 2  He  would  not  fail  to  be  delighted  with 
the  classic  little  Senate  Chamber,  redolent  of  the  genius  of 
Latrobe,  and  with  the  ease  with  which  he  might  ignore  the 
tiny  gallery  to  find  a  hearty  welcome  on  the  floor.  If  a  for 
eigner,  he  would  be  surprised  to  find  a  constant  stream  of 
fashionable  ladies  entering  the  chamber,  crowding  the  Sena 
tors,  accepting  their  seats,  and  attracting  attention  with 
their  "waving  plumes  glittering  with  all  the  colors  of  the 
rainbow,  and  causing  no  little  bustle." 3  There  he  would  see 
Van  Buren  or  Calhoun  in  the  chair,  and  on  the  floor  he  would 
want  to  have  Webster,  Clay,  Benton,  Forsyth,  Preston,  and 
Ewing  pointed  out.  And  perhaps,  like  Miss  Martineau,  he 
would  leave  with  the  impression  that  he  had  "seen  no  as 
sembly  of  chosen  men  and  no  company  of  the  high  born, 
invested  with  the  antique  dignities  of  an  antique  realm,  half 
so  imposing  to  the  imagination  as  this  collection  of  stout- 
souled,  full-grown,  original  men  brought  together  on  the 
ground  of  their  supposed  sufficiency,  to  work  out  the  will  of 
their  diverse  constituencies."  4 

Having  seen  the  Senate,  he  would  seek  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Inquiring  his  way  to  the  Strangers'  Gallery 
from  the  rotunda,  he  would  be  directed  to  a  narrow  stairs, 
and,  on  ascending,  would  find  himself  in  a  large  room  of  many 
columns,  the  work  of  the  architect  of  the  Senate,  looking 

1  William  H.  Seward's  Autobiography,  i,  277.  2  Ibid. 

3  Miss  Martineau  comments  severely  upon  the  levity  of  the  women,  I,  180. 

4  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  i,  179. 


10    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

down  upon  the  seats  of  members  arranged  in  concentric 
rows.  Thence  he  would  look  down  upon  the  bald  head  of  the 
venerable  Adams,  the  anaemic  figure  of  Polk,  the  handsome 
form  of  Binney,  and  the  ludicrous  conglomeration  of  garbs 
representing  the  diverse  tastes  of  the  tailors  of  New  York  and 
the  wilderness.  If  acquainted  with  one  of  the  members,  the 
visitor  might  be  invited  to  the  corridor  behind  the  Speaker's 
desk,  fitted  with  seats  and  sofas  drawn  about  the  fireplace 
at  either  end,  where  members  and  their  guests  were  wont 
to  lounge  and  smoke.1  Having  satisfied  himself  with  the 
chambers  of  the  lawmakers,  the  visitor  would  want  to  see 
the  tribunal  of  interpretation,  said  by  some  to  have  more 
power  in  determining  the  law  of  the  land  than  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  and  to  observe  the  famous  Marshall  on  the 
Supreme  Bench.  Descending  to  the  basement  of  the  Capitol, 
immediately  under  the  Senate,  he  would  be  shown  into  a 
small  plain  room  with  low  ceiling,  and  "a  certain  cellar-like 
aspect  which  is  not  pleasant,"  2  and  would  probably  be  a 
little  shocked  at  the  figure  of  Justice,  "a  wooden  figure  with 
the  eyes  unfilleted,  and  grasping  the  scales  like  a  groceress."  3 
On  cushioned  sofas,  on  either  side  of  the  room,  he  might,  if  a 
favorite  orator  were  making  an  argument,  see  gayly  dressed 
ladies  —  for,  like  the  Senate  Chamber,  the  court  was  one  of 
the  fashionable  resorts  of  the  Thirties.  But  there,  he  would 
find  dignity  and  quiet  and  decorum,  in  striking  contrast  with 
most  of  the  American  courts  of  that  generation.4  If  fortu 
nate,  he  might  listen  to  the  reading  of  a  decision  by  Marshall, 
and  observe  Butler,  the  Attorney-General,  "his  fingers  play 
ing  among  his  papers,  his  thick  black  eyes  and  thin,  tremu 
lous  lips  for  once  fixed,  his  small  face  pale  with  thought," 

1  Men  and  Manners,  16.       *  2  Ibid.,  65. 

3  Six  Months  in  America,  64. 

4  Both  Hamilton  (Men  and  Manners)  and  Vigne,  the  English   barrister  (S'ix 
Months  in  America),  were  shocked  at  the  utter  lack  of  respect  for  the  dignity  of 
American  courts,  but  were  impressed  with  the  solemnity  and  decorum  in  the 
Supreme  Court. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       11 

contrasting  with  the  more  composed  countenances  of  Clay 
and  Webster.1 

In  the  days  of  Jackson,  comparatively  few  families  had  a 
permanent  residence  in  Washington,  and  to  an  English 
visitor  the  town  had  the  appearance  of  a  watering-place.2 
Many  Senators  and  Representatives  considered  it  so  im 
possible  that  they  left  their  families  at  home.3  Attorney- 
General  Butler  at  first  refused  to  consider  a  position  in  the 
Cabinet  because  "Mrs.  Butler  did  not  like  the  idea  of  bring 
ing  her  daughters  up  here." 4  When  the  wives  and  daughters 
did  accompany  the  statesmen  to  the  capital,  it  was  the  cus 
tom,  with  such  as  could  afford  to  maintain  an  establishment, 
to  take  a  house.  These  usually  purchased,  albeit  many  of  the 
more  desirable  residences  that  could  be  leased  were  not  for 
sale.  An  establishment  could  be  maintained  at  a  surprisingly 
low  cost.  Houses  "suitable  for  the  purposes  of  genteel  peo 
ple"  could  be  had  for  from  $50  to  $300  a  year,  and  even 
the  large  mansions,  many  of  them  standing  and  still  occupied 
by  fashionable  families  after  almost  a  century,  could  be  had 
for  from  $500  to  $800  a  year.5  The  servant  problem  did  not 
exist,  for  domestics  could  be  employed  in  abundance  for  $4  a 
month.6  The  Southerners,  bringing  their  slaves  with  them,  or 
buying  them  in  the  slave  market  at  Alexandria,  were  able  to 
entertain  with  a  lavish  display  which  set  the  pace  socially, 
and  made  the  Southern  dominance  easy.  Foreigners  were 
impressed,  after  hearing  a  senatorial  orator  rhapsodize  in  the 
Senate  over  the  blessings  of  American  liberty,  to  see  him 
driven  from  the  Capitol  after  his  oration  by  one  of  his  family 
slaves.7  Others,  not  wishing  to  be  burdened  with  a  house, 

1  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  i,  165.  2  Men  and  Manners.  21. 

3  Senator  Tazewell  of  Virginia  was  one  of  these. 

4  Van  Buren  to  Butler,  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  39-43. 

5  National  Intelligencer,  Jan.  30,  1831,  advertised  a  house  in  Georgetown  on  Gay 
Street,  "convenient  for  the  accommodation  of  a  genteel  family,  having  all  necessary 
outhouses,  stabling,  etc.,"  for  $300  a  year  payable  quarterly. 

6  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  55. 

7  Hamilton,  in  Men  and  Manners,  comments  severely  upon  this  incongruity. 


12    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

lived  in  the  hotels,  where  other  people's  slaves  waited  upon 
them.  In  these,  too,  the  cost  of  living  was  low,  the  leading 
hostelries  taking  guests  at  $1.75  a  day,  $10  a  week,  or  $35  a 
month.  Transients  sat  down  to  tables  fairly  groaning  with 
food,  and  with  decanters  of  brandy  and  whiskey  at  their 
elbows,  free  at  these  prices.  The  guest,  in  his  room,  could 
order  real  Madeira  for  $3  a  bottle,  sherry,  brandy,  and  gin 
for  $1.50,  and  Jamaica  rum  for  $1.  The  statesman,  leaving 
his  hotel  quarters  for  the  Senate  or  the  House,  could,  if  he 
wished,  pause  at  the  bar  of  the  hostelry  for  a  toddy  of  un 
adulterated  liquor  and  lump  sugar  for  twelve  and  a  half 
cents.1  But  the  greater  part  of  the  public  men  lived  in 
boarding-houses,  and  the  "Intelligencer,"  the  "Globe,"  and 
the  "Telegraph"  filled  columns,  at  the  beginning  of  con 
gressional  sessions,  with  the  enticing  advertisements  of  the 
landladies.  Some  few  of  these  houses,  such  as  Dawson's, 
associated  with  celebrities,  live  in  history,  but  the  majority 
were  small,  shabby,  and  uncomfortable.  In  these,  however, 
romances  sometimes  blossomed,  and  the  barmaid  of  one  pre 
sided  for  a  time  over  the  establishment  of  a  Cabinet  member, 
and  the  landlady  of  another  over  the  household  of  a  Senator 
who  aspired  to  the  Presidency.2 

Out  of  this  life  in  hotels  and  boarding-houses,  during  the 
Jacksonian  period,  came  the  custom  of  statesmen  forming 
themselves  and  families  into  "messes,"  each  "mess"  having 
a  table  to  itself  and  contracting  with  the  landlady  or  landlord 
for  a  caterer.  In  this  way  the  lawgivers  were  socially  grouped 
according  to  their  intellectual  and  financial  standing,  and 
some  of  these  "messes"  were  famous  in  their  day.  Friend 
ships  were  formed  that  survived  all  the  vicissitudes  of  time 
and  political  change.  One  of  these,  known  as  the  "  Woodbury 
mess,"  consisted  of  such  a  notable  coterie  of  brilliancy  and 
genius  as  Calhoun,  John  Randolph,  Tazewell,  Burges,  and 

1  Perley's  Reminiscences,  I,  143. 

2  Peggy  Eaton  and  Mrs.  Hugh  Lawson  White. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       13 

Verplanck.  About  the  table  many  celebrated  measures  were 
conceived  and  the  strategy  of  many  a  fight  was  planned.1 
According  to  the  law  of  the  "mess"  a  member  might  invite 
a  guest  only  with  the  consent  of  all  the  others,  and  it  was 
understood  that  a  failure  to  get  unanimous  consent  should 
not  be  resented.  Occasionally  the  guests  were  permitted  to 
contribute  something  to  the  usual  outlay.  Daniel  Webster 
was  glad  enough  to  pay  his  way  on  such  occasions.  The 
venerable  Adams,  who  had  a  comfortable  home  on  F  Street 2 
and  was  not  considered  a  notably  social  animal,  delighted  to 
join  his  most  interesting  colleagues  at  the  boarding-house  or 
hotel  table.  "I  dined  with  John  C.  Calhoun  at  Dawson's," 
he  recorded.  "Mr.  Preston,  the  other  Senator  from  South 
Carolina,  and  his  wife  were  there,  and  Mangum,  Southard, 
Sprague  of  Maine.  Company  sat  late  at  table  and  the  con 
versation  was  chiefly  upon  politics.  The  company  was,  at 
this  time,  adversaries  of  the  present  Administration  —  most 
of  them  were  adversaries  to  the  last."  3  Three  days  later: 
*'  Dined  with  Benj.  Gorham  and  Edward  Everett.  Calhoun, 
Preston,  Clay,  and  others  were  there."  4  The  next  evening: 
"Dined  with  Colonel  Robert  B.  Campbell  of  S.C.  at  his 
lodgings  at  Gadsby's";  thirty  people,  including  Calhoun 
>and  Preston,  in  attendance.5 

It  was  inevitable  that  in  a  little  city  of  twenty  thousand, 
consisting  in  part  of  the  cleverest  men  and  women  in  the 
Republic,  and  devoted  wholly  to  politics  and  society,  cele 
brated  sojourners  should  be  feted  and  lionized.  Foreigners 
visiting  America  in  the  Thirties,  and  recording  their  impres 
sions,  have  all  paid  tribute  to  the  hospitality  and  brilliance 
of  the  capital,  as  compared  with  other  and  larger  cities.  The 
most  famous  of  the  visitors  was  Harriet  Martineau,  who  ar 
rived  in  the  summer  of  1834,  in  her  thirty-second  year,  and 

1  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  59. 

2  Near  Fourteenth  Street  on  the  north  side  of  the  street. 

3  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  8,  1834.          9 

4  Ibid.,  March  11.  1834.  6  Ibid.,  March  12,  1834. 


14    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

in  the  full  flush  of  her  literary  fame.  Introduced  to  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  Senate  leaders  by  the  British  Minister,  it  was 
the  rumor  at  the  time  that  six  hundred  people  called  upon 
her  the  day  after  her  arrival.1  "The  drollest  part  of  the 
whole,"  wrote  a  lady  of  fashion,  "is  that  these  crowds,  at 
least  in  Washington,  go  to  see  the  lion  and  nothing  else.  I 
have  not  met  with  an  individual,  except  Mrs.  Seaton  and  her 
mother,2  who  have  read  any  of  her  works,  or  know  for  what 
she  is  celebrated.  Our  most  fashionable  exclusive,3  Mrs. 
Tayloe,  said  she  intended  to  call,  and  asked  what  were  the 
novels  she  had  written,  and  if  they  were  pretty.  The  gentle 
men  laugh  at  a  woman's  writing  on  political  economy.  Not 
one  of  them  has  the  least  idea  of  her  work." 4  But  the  fluency 
of  the  lioness  captivated  the  men.  Among  her  constant  vis 
itors  were  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Preston,  and  Justice 
Story.  When  she  entered  the  Senate  Chamber  or  the  Su 
preme  Court  room,  the  leading  men  of  the  Nation  left  their 
seats  to  pay  her  homage.  Calhoun's  "mess"  gave  her  a 
dinner.  Clay  insisted  that  at  Lexington  she  should  occupy 
his  house  at  Ashland,  and  that  she  should  be  the  guest  of  his 
daughter  in  New  Orleans.  Calhoun  assured  her  triumph  in 
Charleston  through  letters  to  his  friends.  "No  stranger 
except  Lafayette  ever  received  such  universal  and  marked 
testimonies  of  regard,"  wrote  a  sympathetic  observer  of  her 
reception.5  When  Thomas  Hamilton,  the  English  writer, 
author  of  "Men  and  Manners  in  America,"  reached  Washing 
ton,  a  member  of  Congress  escorted  him,  uninvited,  to  a  ball 
on  the  evening  of  his  arrival,  with  the  assurance  that  the  "in- 

1  Mrs.  Margaret  Bayard  Smith,  who  recorded  it  in  First  Forty  Years  of  American 
Society,  Jan.  12, 1835,  thought  it  exaggerated. 

2  Mrs.  Seaton,  wife  of  the  editor  of  the  Intelligencer. 

3  Mrs.  Benjamin  Ogle  Tayloe  lived  in  the  house  still  standing  on  Lafayette 
Square,  known  in  recent  years  as  "The  Little  White  House."   She  was  a  famous 
hostess.  President  W.  H.  Harrison  contracted  the  cold  that  killed  him  while  walk 
ing  through  the  slush  from  the  White  House  to  the  Tayloes'  to  offer  a  diplomatic 
post  to  the  master  of  the  house. 

4  First  Forty  Years,  356.  6  Ibid.,  368. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       15 

trusion  would  be  welcome."  After  passing  "through  a  for 
midable  array  of  introductions  to  distinguished  persons,  and 
after  four  hours  of  almost  unbroken  conversation,  much  of 
which  could  not  be  carried  on  without  considerable  expendi 
ture  of  thought,"  the  weary  tourist,  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  rejoiced  to  find  himself  "stretched  in  a  comfortable 
bed  at  Gadsby's."  l  The  experiences  of  Hamilton  and  Miss 
Martineau  were  not  exceptional. 

Nor  were  American  literary  celebrities  left  in  doubt  as  to 
the  cordiality  of  their  welcome  in  the  best  social  circles  of  the 
capital.  The  winter  of  1833  found  Washington  Irving  in 
Washington,  where  he  was  not  unfamiliar  with  the  leading 
houses,  living  "in  the  neighborhood  of  the  McLanes"  and 
making  "use  of  a  quiet  corner  and  a  little  interval  of  leisure 
to  exercise  a  long  neglected  pen."  2  Despite  the  flood  of 
invitations,  he  found  time  to  report  to  Van  Buren  the  attitude 
of  McLane,  and  the  hostilities,  in  select  circles,  to  Kendall. 
"Washington  Irving  is  here  now,"  wrote  John  Tyler  to  his 
daughter.  "He  stands  at  the  head  of  our  literati.  His  pro 
ductions  are  numerous  and  well  spoken  of  in  Europe."  3 
Nor  did  society  in  those  days  lack  their  chronicler,  for  the 
first  society  letters  from  Washington  were  those  of  Nathaniel 
P.  Willis  written  for  the  "New  York  Mirror."  At  that  time 
he  was  "a  foppish,  slender  young  man,  with  a  profusion  of 
curly  light  hair,  and  was  always  dressed  in  the  height  of 
fashion."  4  The  doors  of  the  most  exclusive  homes  were 
thrown  open  to  this  elegant  youth,  who,  having  traveled  in 
Europe,  affected  a  contempt  for  the  masses.  He  became  the 
faithful  Pepys  of  the  period,  describing  society  people  and 
events  with  liveliness  and  fancy,  and  imparting  a  strange 
interest  to  the  most  insignificant  occurrences  through  the  art 
of  the  telling.  It  was  during  this  period,  too,  that  the  political 

1  Men  and  Manners,  17. 

2  Irving  to  Van  Buren,  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  610. 

»  Letters  and  Times.  *  Perley's  Reminiscences,  i,  107. 


16    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

letters  of  Washington  correspondents  were  introduced  into 
American  journalism.  Matthew  L.  Davis,  famous  as  the 
"Genevese  Traveller"  of  the  London  "Times,"  and  as  the 
capital  correspondent  of  the  "New  York  Courier  and  En 
quirer,"  was  for  years  the  confidant  and  companion  of  Sena 
tors,  Justices,  and  Presidents.  And  James  Gordon  Bennett, 
young  and  clever,  appeared  upon  the  scene  to  give  a  new  and 
spicy  touch  to  reporting  with  his  Walpolean  letters  of  wit, 
sarcasm,  and  personalities,  for  the  New  York  paper  of  Jamess 
Watson  Webb.  Along  with  the  democratization  of  politics 
in  the  Thirties  went  a  popularization  of  the  methods  of  the 
press. 

The  amusements  of  the  Washington  of  this  time  were,  for 
the  most  part,  crude.  The  theater  featured  players  scarcely 
celebrated  in  their  own  day,  and  most  of  the  plays  presented 
have  happily  been  long  since  forgotten.  Even  these  were 
interspersed  with  songs  and  farce  acts.  In  1820  the  Washing 
ton  Theater  had  been  built,  and  hither,  at  long  intervals, 
came  celebrated  artists,  but  they  came  "like  angels,  few  and 
far  between."  From  his  rustic  retreat  in  Maryland  the  elder 
Booth,  half  mad,  all  genius,  occasionally  emerged  to  curdle 
the  blood  of  the  statesmen  and  their  families  with  his  intense 
interpretations  of  the  Shakesperian  tragedies.  From  a  Booth 
night  Jackson  was  seldom  absent.  But  of  all  the  artists  who 
played  in  the  capital  none  created  such  a  furor  as  Fanny 
Kemble.  The  elder  statesmen  were  captivated  by  her  art 
and  charm.  John  Marshall  and  Justice  Story  were  regular 
attendants,  and  the  Chief  Justice  was  lustily  cheered  as  he 
entered  the  box.  When  she  played  Mrs.  Haller  in  "The 
Stranger,"  and  the  audience  was  moved  to  tears,  "the  Chief 
Justice  shed  them  in  common  with  the  younger  eyes."  1 
Inspiring  audiences  —  those  of  the  Thirties,  with  Marshall, 
Jackson,  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun  in  the  boxes  or  the  pit. 
Great,  not  only  in  genius,  but  in  their  fresh  capacity  to  enjoy, 
1  Story  to  Sarah  Waldo  Story,  Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  u,  117. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       17 

and  when  one  of  the  most  learned  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  could  be  moved  to  poesy  in  paying  tribute  to  an 
actress's  art.1 

But  even  with  a  Kemble  playing,  the  haughty  little 
country  capital  refused  to  abandon  its  parties,  and  we  have 
the  record  of  a  New  Yorker  finding  "Fanny  Kemble  in  the 
Washington  Theater  like  a  canary  bird  in  a  mouse  trap," 
leaving  the  theater  in  the  midst  of  a  performance  to  attend 
"a  delightful  party  at  Mrs.  Tayloe's,"  where  he  "met  many 
distinguished  people  and  all  the  Washington  belles."  2  In 
those  days  the  theater-goer  purchased  his  tickets  between 
ten  and  one  o'clock,  and  the  doors  were  thrown  open  at  six, 
with  the  curtain  rising  promptly  at  seven.  For  the  usual 
performances  the  boxes  were  seventy-five  cents,  the  pit 
twenty-five.  When  the  rain  converted  the  streets  into  rib 
bons  of  sticky  black  mud,  or  the  bitter  cold  made  an  invi 
tation  to  the  people  from  the  "magnificent  distances"  un 
profitable,  the  papers  would  announce  a  postponement,  with 
an  explanation.3  The  pleasure-seekers  were  not  restricted, 
however,  to  the  players  of  the  Washington  Theater,  and 
occasionally  a  show  would  appear  advertising  "the  Great 

1  Story  wrote  the  following  lines  to  Miss  Kemble: 

"Genius  and  taste  and  feeling  all  combine 
To  make  each  province  of  the  drama  thine. 
She  first  to  Fancy's  bright  creation  gives 
The  very  form  and  soul;  it  breathes  —  it  lives. 
She  next  with  grace  inimitable  plays 
In  every  gesture,  action,  tone  and  gaze. 
The  last  to  nature  lends  its  subtlest  art 
And  warms  and  wins  and  thrills  and  melts  the  heart 
Go,  lovely  woman,  go.  Enjoy  thy  fame. 
A  second  Kemble  with  a  deathless  name." 

(Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  n,  117.) 

2  Hone's  Diary,  March  3,  1834. 

8  "The  public  is  most  respectfully  informed  that,  in  consequence  of  the  weather, 
the  performance  advertised  for  Thursday  is  postponed  until  Saturday  evening, 
September  17th,  1831."  (National  Intelligencer,  Sept.  17,  1831.)  "The  Tyrolese 
Minstrels  have  to  announce  that,  in  consequence  of  the  severity  of  the  weather, 
their  concert  which  was  advertised  for  Saturday  will  be  deferred  until  Monday 
evening."  (Ibid.,  Dec.  19, 1831.) 


18    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Anaconda  of  Java,"  and  the  "Boa  Constrictor  of  Ceylon," 
both  "so  docile  that  the  most  timid  lady  or  child  may  view 
them  with  safety  and  pleasure."  1  Such  were  the  amuse 
ments  offered  for  the  entertainment  of  Jackson,  Webster, 
Marshall,  Calhoun,  and  Clay. 

But  for  the  men  there  were  other  forms  of  amusement, 
popular  in  their  day.  The  racing  on  the  National  Course 
near  the  city  made  it  difficult  to  maintain  a  quorum  in  Con 
gress,  and  the  statesmen  mounted  their  horses  to  ride  to  the 
track  to  cheer  their  favorites  and  to  bet  their  money.  Even 
the  President  entered  his  horses  and  lost  heavily  on  his  wagers. 
There  Jackson  and  a  goodly  portion  of  the  Cabinet,  and  a 
formidable  sprinkling  of  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition  from 
Clay  to  Letcher,  might  be  seen  backing  their  judgment  as  to 
horseflesh  with  their  purses.  And  when  it  was  not  horse- 
racing,  it  was  cockfighting,  with  the  President  entering  his 
own  birds  from  the  Hermitage,  and  riding  with  his  friends  to 
Bladensburg  to  witness  the  humiliation  of  his  entries.  It  was 
a  day  of  gambling,  when  statesmen,  whose  names  children  are 
now  taught  to  reverence,  played  for  heavy  stakes  for  days 
and  nights  at  a  time,  with  Clay  and  Poindexter  losing  for 
tunes,  and  an  occasional  victim  of  the  lure  blowing  out  his 
brains.  While  most  of  the  celebrities  played  in  private  houses, 
they  could,  if  they  preferred,  find  the  notorious  gambling- 
houses  along  the  Avenue.  Along  with  racing,  cockfighting, 
and  gambling  went  heavy  drinking.  "Since  I  have  been 
here,"  wrote  Horace  Binney,  after  two  years  in  Congress, 
"one  man,  an  habitual  drunkard,  blew  out  his  brains;  two 
have  died  notorious  drunkards,  and  one  of  them  shamefully 
immoral.  The  honors  are  given  to  all,  with  equal  eulogy  and 
ceremonial."  2  The  statesman  of  the  Thirties  who  did  not 
drink  heavily  was  a  rarity.  Just  as  whiskey,  brandy,  gin,  and 
wine  were  served  in  great  decanters  on  the  tables  at  hotels, 
"at  the  boarding-houses  every  guest  had  his  bottle  or  interest 

1  Advertisement  in  the  Globe.  *  Life  of  Binney,  127. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       19 

in  a  bottle."  *  On  the  way  to  the  Capitol,  the  statesman 
could  quench  his  thirst  at  numerous  bars  —  and  often  did. 
And  in  the  basement  of  the  Capitol  building  whiskey  could 
be  had.  Never  in  American  history  have  so  many  promising 
careers  been  wrecked  by  drunkenness  as  during  the  third 
decade.  Frequently  national  celebrities  would  appear  upon 
the  floor  of  the  House  or  Senate  in  a  state  of  intoxication, 
and  on  at  least  one  occasion  the  greater  part  of  the  house  was 
hilariously  drunk.2  Thus,  despite  the  miry  streets,  the  drab-"" 
ness  and  rusticity,  the  Washington  of  the  Jacksonian  period 
was  easily  the  gayest,  the  most  brilliant  and  dissipated  com 
munity  in  the  country.  A  penetrating  observer  found,  in  its 
recklessness  and  extravagance,  a  striking  similarity  to  the/xJ 
spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  England,  as  portrayed 
in  Thackeray's  "Humorists,"  with  "laxity  of  morals  and  the 
coolest  disregard  possible."  3  Its  superior  social  charm  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  it  was  "the  only  place  in  the  Union 
where  people  consider  it  necessary  to  be  agreeable  —  where 
pleasing,  as  in  the  Old  World,  becomes  a  sort  of  business,  and 
the  enjoyments  of  social  intercourse  enter  into  the  habitual 
calculations  of  every  one." 4  A  goodly  portion  of  the  women 
of  good  society,  and  other  sojourners,  were  apt  to  contem 
plate  a  Washington  season  as  "a  sort  of  annual  lark,"  which 
offered  the  most  promising  solution  of  the  problem  of  a  weary 
winter  in  the  country.  Willis  explained  the  attractions  of  the 
country  capital  on  the  ground  that  "the  great  deficiency  in 
all  our  cities,  the  company  of  highly  cultivated  and  superior 
men,  is  here  supplied." 5  Even  the  supercilious  and  scolding 
Captain  Marryat  of  England  found  it  "an  agreeable  city, 
full  of  pleasant,  clever  people,  who  come  here  to  amuse  and 
be  amused,"  and  he  observed  "much  more  usage  du  monde 
and  Continental  ease  than  in  any  other  parts  of  the  States."  6 

1  Quincy's  Figures  of  the  Past. 

2  This  charge  was  made  on  the  floor  by  Henry  A.  Wise. 

3  Perleys  Reminiscences,  i,  120.  4  Men  and  Manners,  20. 
*  American  Scenery,  n,  50.                          6  Diary  in  America,  163, 


20    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

After  spending  several  crowded  weeks  in  the  social  and 
political  heart  of  the  town,  Harriet  Martineau  concluded 
that,  while  life  there  would  be  "dreary"  to  women  who  loved 
domesticity,  "persons  who  love  dissipation,  who  love  to 
watch  the  game  of  politics,  and  those  who  make  a  study  of 
strong  minds  under  strong  excitement,  like  a  season  in 
Washington."  1  Ludicrous  as  it  was  in  its  incongruities,  the 
little  city  bravely  assumed  the  pose  of  a  real  capital,  plumed 
itself  on  the  superiority  of  its  society,  and  made  much  of  the 
fashions.  At  the  crowded  receptions  the  wondering  visitor 
might  very  easily  be  jostled  against  Webster  or  Sam  Hous 
ton,  dandies  like  Willis  or  frontiersmen  in  boots  and  soiled 
linen,  flirtatious  belles  and  matrons,  beauties  and  beasts. 
But  there  were  many  leaders  of  fashion  who  imitated  the 
frivolities  of  European  capitals,  ordered  their  dresses  from 
Paris  or  London,  and  regularly  summoned  coiffeurs  to  their 
homes  to  dress  their  hair  for  balls  and  receptions.2  When  Con 
gress  was  in  session  fashionable  women  from  every  section 
flocked  to  the  seat  of  government  bringing  their  daughters 
for  a  Washington  season.  One  of  the  resident  society  leaders, 
commenting  on  their  coming,  dolefully  complained  that  they 
were  "coming  in  such  ton  and  expensive  fashions,  that  the 
poor  citizens  cannot  pretend  to  vie  with  them  and  absolutely 
shrink  into  insignificance."  The  shops  made  much  of  their 
Paris  finery.  Mrs.  Coursault  announced  "to  the  ladies  of  the 
metropolis  that  she  has  just  returned  from  Paris  with  a  most 
splendid  assortment  of  millinery  and  goods,  to  be  seen  at  the 
store  of  Mrs.  Lamplier  on  the  Avenue."4  Mr.  Palmieri  ad 
vertised  that  he  had  "just  received  from  Paris  an  elegant 
assortment  of  caps  and  pelerines  direct  from  Mademoiselle 

1  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  I,  143. 

2  A.  Lafore,  a  coiffeur  from  Paris,  had  his  establishment  at  Mrs.  Doynes's  milli 
nery  store  on  the  Avenue  between  Ninth  and  Tenth  Streets,  and  advertised  his  skilJ 
in  the  local  papers.   National  Intelligencer,  Jan.  1,  1831. 

8  First  Forty  Years,  Jan.  26,  1830. 
4  National  Intelligencer,  Jan.  2,  1831. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       21 

Minette's,  the  first  Milliner  of  Paris,  and  a  beautiful  as 
sortment  of  satin  shoes."1  Another  announced  "French 
dresses  for  balls,"  and  still  another,  "  the  arrival  from  Paris 
of  an  elegant  assortment  of  French  jewelry." 

The  daily  life  of  the  fashionable  ladies  of  the  time  began 
with  breakfast  at  nine,  when  they  amused  themselves  by 
comparing  the  conflicting  descriptions  of  scenes  they  had 
witnessed  the  day  before  in  the  "Intelligencer"  and  the 
"Globe."  By  eleven  they  were  apt  to  be  on  their  way  to  the 
Capitol  to  enliven  the  solemnity  of  the  Senate  Chamber  or 
the  Supreme  Court,  unless  a  neglected  call,  an  appointment 
with  an  artist,  or  an  excursion  interfered.  Dinner  was  served 
from  four  to  six,  and  soon  afterwards  milady  retired  to  her 
boudoir  to  dress  for  some  ball,  rout,  levee,  or  masquerade. 
Long  drives  through  the  mud  —  late  hours  with  the  breaking 
dawn  greeting  her  return  —  and  the  weary  lady  would  relax 
and  warm  awhile  at  the  drawing-room  fire  before  retiring  for 
the  night.2  Contrary  to  the  popular  belief,  there  was  much 
social  brilliance  during  the  Jackson  Administrations.  Nor  is 
the  prevailing  impression  that  all  the  elegance,  cleverness, 
and  charm  was  confined  to  the  drawing-rooms  of  the  Whig 
aristocracy  borne  out  by  the  facts.  In  truth,  among  the 
women  of  the  Jacksonian  circle  there  were  two  or  three  who 
were  easily  superior  to  the  best  the  Whigs  could  offer,  in 
intellect,  culture,  and  beauty.  Such  was  the  bigotry  of  the 
times  that  there  was  a  tendency  for  society  to  segregate  into 
camps,  but  it  was  impossible  to  draw  the  party  line  on  a 
number  of  the  fascinating  and  brilliant  women  who  presided 
over  the  households  of  Jacksonian  Senators  and  Cabinet 
Ministers.  While  the  Whigs  generally  remained  severely 
aloof  from  the  house  of  the  President,  they  were  unable  to 
resist  the  invitations  of  the  President's  friends. 

1  National  Intelligencer,  Feb.  16,  1831. 

2  Miss  Martineau  thus  describes  the  life  of  a  lady  of  fashion,  Retrospect  of  Western 
Travel,  i.  145. 


22    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Among  all  the  women  of  the  period  none  approached  Mrs. 
Edward  Livingston  in  brilliance,  charm,  and  elegance,  nor 
did  any  of  the  ladies  of  the  Whig  circle,  not  even  Mrs.  Tay- 
loe,  who  wondered  if  Miss  Martineau's  novels  were  "  pretty," 
approach  her  in  the  lavishness  and  taste  of  her  dinners  and 
parties.  "Mrs.  Livingston  takes  the  lead  in  the  fashionable 
world,"  wrote  Mrs.  Smith,  who  found  it  hard  to  concede  the 
virtues  of  the  Jacksonians.1  "I  know  that  Mr.  Livingston 
gives  elegant  dinners  and  his  wines  are  the  best  in  the  city," 
recorded  a  press  correspondent  of  the  time.2  "We  dined  by 
invitation  with  Mr.  Secretary  Livingston,"  wrote  Justice 
Story,  an  enemy  of  the  Jacksonians.  "The  dinner  was  superb 
and  unequalled  by  anything  I  have  seen  in  Washington 
except  at  some  of  the  foreign  ministers',  and  was  served 
exclusively  in  the  French  style."3  This  captivating  woman, 
of  French  descent,  had  known  a  childhood  of  romance  in  a 
marble  palace  by  the  sea  in  St.  Domingo,  had  miraculously 
escaped  the  servile  insurrection,  and  reached  New  Orleans 
to  become  the  wife  of  Livingston.  Wonderfully  vivacious, 
eloquent  in  conversation,  intelligently  interested  in  politics, 
steeped  in  the  literature  of  the  ages,  witty  and  spirited,  her 
home  in  Lafayette  Square  more  nearly  resembled  a  salon  than 
anything  the  capital  has  ever  known.  Even  the  most  bigoted 
Whigs  of  the  day  were  glad  to  lay  aside  their  partisanship  at 
her  threshold,  and  leaders,  still  flushed  with  a  verbal  duel  in 
the  Senate,  smiled  amicably  upon  each  other  in  her  drawing- 
room.  Here  one  might  meet  John  Marshall,  Joseph  Story, 
and  Bushrod  Washington  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Webster, 
Clay,  Calhoun,  Wirt,  or  Randolph.  About  her,  too,  she 
gathered  a  coterie  of  cultured  women,  and  Mrs.  John  Quincy 
Adams  and  Mrs.  Andrew  Stevenson  came  and  went  in  the 
house  on  the  Square  with  as  little  ceremony  as  members  of 

1  First  Forty  Years,  Nov.  7,  1831. 

2  Quoted  by  Ellet  in  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic,  163  n. 

*  Letter  to  Mrs.  Sarah  Waldo  Story,  Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  n,  117. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       23 

the  household.  The  charm  of  the  house  was  enhanced  by  the 
exquisite  Cora,  the  daughter,  who  reigned  as  the  belle  and 
toast  of  the  town  until  her  marriage,  captivating,  among 
others,  the  impressionable  young  Josiah  Quincy,  who  thought 
her  "undoubtedly  the  greatest  belle  in  the  U.S.,"  and,  if  not 
"transcendently  handsome,"  possessed  of  a  "fine  figure,  a 
pretty  face."  Finding  it  "the  height  of  the  ton  to  be  her 
admirer,"  the  young  Bostonian  followed  the  fashion  with  all 
his  heart.1 

Intimately  identified  with  Mrs.  Livingston  was  Mrs. 
Stevenson,  to  whom  the  years  had  been  kind  since  the  days 
when,  as  Sally  Coles,  she  was  a  protegee  of  Dolly  Madison.2 
At  this  time  she  was  the  wife  of  the  Jacksonian  Speaker  of  the 
House,  soon  to  become  the  hostess  of  the  American  Legation 
in  London,  and  to  witness,  in  that  role,  the  coronation  of 
Victoria.  Strikingly  handsome,  tall  and  commanding,  she 
resembled  her  friend  in  an  ineffable  graciousness  of  manner 
and  an  extraordinary  conversational  ability.  Among  the 
most  famous  hostesses  of  the  Jacksonian  circle  were  Mrs. 
Louis  McLane,  "a  gay,  frank,  communicative  woman" 
whose  "self-complacence  is  united  with  so  much  good  humor 
in  others  that  it  is  not  offensive,"  who  gave  popular  weekly 
dinners  and  parties; 3  Mrs.  Levi  Woodbury,  beautiful  of  form 
and  feature,  who  resembled  Dolly  Madison  in  her  suavity, 
ease  of  manner,  and  infinite  tact,  and  presided  over  her  many 
dinners  and  dances  with  dignity  and  grace,  and  made  a 
practice  of  featuring  the  most  dashing  belles  of  Baltimore, 
Alexandria,  and  Georgetown; 4  and  Mrs.  John  Forsyth,  more 
conventional  and  retiring  than  the  others,  but  yielding  to 
none  in  culture  and  elegance,  and  having  a  certain  advan 
tage  in  her  "group  of  graces." 6  Among  the  hostesses  of  the 

1  Figures  of  the  Past.          2  Mrs.  Wharton's  Social  Life  of  the  Republic,  139,  179. 
8  First  Forty  Years,  Aug.  29,  1831. 
4  Ellet's  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic,  226. 

6  A  poet  describing  one  of  the  Adams  parties  referred  to  "Forsyth  with  her  group 
of  graces"  —  her  beautiful  daughters. 


24    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Opposition,  Mrs.  Benjamin  Ogle  Tayloe,  a  woman  of  grace 
and  beauty,  but  lacking  in  the  intellectual  sparkle  of  Mrs. 
Livingston,  maintained  the  most  elegant  establishment. 

But  these  were  only  the  most  brilliant  leaders,  for  the 
Jacksonian  period  was  one  of  hectic  social  activity,  with 
foreign  ministers  and  Cabinet  members  entertaining  con 
stantly  and  lavishly,  and  the  official  underlings  desperately 
bent  on  a  ruinous  and  riotous  imitation.  It  was  a  day  of 
much  pretense  and  pose,  of  ceremonious  intercourse,  and  it 
was  not  easy  to  determine  from  the  swallow-tails  and  the 
buff  waistcoats  whether  the  wearer  were  a  Senator  or  a  clerk.1 
It  was  a  conversational  period,  and  seldom  has  the  American 
capital  contained  at  one  time  so  many  excellent  talkers.  Nor 
was  the  talk  mere  chat  and  gossip.  Even  the  women,  espe 
cially  from  the  South,  were  clever  conversationalists,  able 
keenly  to  discuss  the  politics  of  the  day  and  the  measures  of 
the  hour.2  Even  the  busiest  and  greatest  party  leaders  had 
the  time  and  inclination  for  calls  on  bright  women  when  they 
could  enjoy  the  Johnsonian  luxury  of  having  their  talk  out. 
We  have  a  picture  of  Clay  "sitting  upright  on  the  sofa,  with 
a  snuff  box  ever  in  his  hand,"  discoursing  "for  many  hours 
in  his  even,  soft,  deliberative  tone";  of  Webster,  "leaning  back 
at  his  ease,  telling  stories,  cracking  jokes,  shaking  the  sofa 
with  burst  after  burst  of  laughter,  or  smoothly  discoursing  to 
the  perfect  felicity  of  the  logical  part  of  one's  constitution"; 
of  Calhoun,  the  "cast  iron  man,"  who  "looked  as  if  he  had 
never  been  born,"  no  longer  capable  of  mental  relaxation, 
meeting  men  and  haranguing  them  by  the  fireside  as  in  the 
Senate;  of  Justice  Story,  talking  gushingly  for  hours,  "his 
face  all  the  while,  notwithstanding  his  gray  hair,  showing 
all  the  nobility  and  ingenuousness  of  a  child's." 3  The  talk 

1  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  GO. 

2  Quincy,  in  Figures  of  the  Past,  was  thus  impressed,  particularly  with  the  daugh 
ter  of  Calhoun. 

8  These  descriptions  of  Miss  Martineau's  are  in  harmony  with  those  that  sprinkle 
the  pages  of  Mrs.  Smith's  work. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       25 

about  the  firesides  and  at  the  receptions,  that  were  given  over 
entirely  to  conversation,  was  by  no  means  confined  to  art, 
eloquence,  and  poetry,  for  the  Mother  Grundys  of  gossip 
were  numerous  among  the  women  seeking  to  amuse  and  be 
amused.  There  were  personalities  as  well  as  personages  in 
the  years  that  Jackson  directed  a  triumphant  party  and  Clay 
led  a  brilliant  and  militant  opposition.1  The  little  town  of 
twenty  thousand  was  not  so  large  that  the  ladies  could  not 
know,  from  observation  or  deduction,  when  Adams  dined 
with  Calhoun,  when  Webster  called  on  Mrs.  Livingston, 
and  what  Mrs.  Tayloe  served  her  guests  at  her  last  re 
ception. 

"Did  you  have  candied  oranges  at  Mrs.  Woodbury's?" 
asked  a  lady  who  had  dined  with  Mrs.  Cass,  of  a  friend  who 
had  dined  with  the  wife  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

"No." 

"Then  they  had  candied  oranges  at  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral's,"  was  the  deduction. 

"How  do  you  know?" 

"Oh,  as  we  were  on  the  way,  I  saw  a  dish  carried;  and  as 
we  had  none  at  Cass's,  I  knew  they  were  either  for  the  Wood- 
burys  or  the  Attorney-General's."  2 

It  was  the  golden  age  of  gallantry  as  well  as  gossip,  some 
flirtatious,  some  courtly.  If  the  admirer  of  John  Forsyth's 
daughter  proposed  in  a  Valentine  Day  verse  3  throbbing  with 
adolescent  passion,  the  more  staid  and  sober-minded  Fran 
cis  Scott  Key  wrote,  in  a  fine  hand,  religious  hymns  for  the 
pleasure  of  her  mother.4 

The  evening  parties  were  the  most  popular  form  of  enter 
tainment,  and  the  hostesses  of  the  Cabinet  circle  set  the  pace. 
The  invitations  were  sent  out  nine  days  in  advance.  Because 

1  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years,  Miss  Martineau's  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel, 
and  Adams's  Diary  all  indicate  a  gossipy  city. 

2  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  I,  152. 

3  The  original  from  "  Alphonse  "  in  possession  of  Waddy  Wood,  Washington,  D.C. 

4  This,  too,  in  the  possession  of  Waddy  Wood. 


26    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

of  the  exigencies  of  politics,  and  the  exactions  of  an  awakened 
"Democracy,"  these  could  be  neither  small  nor  exclusive  in 
character,  and  from  seven  to  nine  hundred  invitations  were 
usually  extended.  Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  all  the  apart 
ments  would  be  thrown  open.  The  muddy  streets  in  front 
would  be  congested  with  carriages.  The  host  and  hostess, 
standing  in  the  drawing-room,  would  receive  their  guests,  and 
then  the  more  serious  would  withdraw  to  quiet  corners  for 
conversation,  the  gay  and  frivolous  would  swing  into  the 
dance,  and  the  devotees  of  chance  would  seek  and  find  a  re 
mote  corner  for  cards.  Servants  would  gingerly  thread  their 
way  through  the  throng  with  light  refreshments  until  eleven 
o'clock  when  an  elaborate  supper  would  be  served.  By  three 
o'clock  the  company  would  begin  to  retire,  and  usually,  at 
daybreak,  the  lights  would  be  extinguished.1 

It  was  a  day  of  social  novelties.  Ice-cream  as  a  refreshment 
first  made  its  appearance  in  the  country  capital  at  the  home 
of  the  widow  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  Introduced  at  the 
White  House  immediately  afterwards  by  Jackson,  it  took 
society  by  storm,2  and  Kinchy,  the  confectioner  on  the 
Avenue,  who  had  a  monopoly  on  ice-cream  and  ices,  became 
as  indispensable  socially  as  the  chef  and  the  fiddler.3  Of  the 
dances,  the  most  popular  was  the  waltz,  introduced  two 
years  before  Jackson's  inauguration,  and,  considered  at  first 
of  questionable  modesty,  it  soon  won  its  way,  and  the  ma 
trons  found  it  as  alluring  as  the  debutantes.  Even  then  there 
were  censorious  people  to  see  in  the  dreamy  glide  an  example 
of  the  moral  degeneracy  of  the  age.4  To  accentuate  their 
pessimism,  the  crowds  were  invariably  so  dense  that  the 
dancers  could  scarcely  move,  reminding  an  amused  Ken- 
tuckian  "of  a  Kentucky  fight  when  the  crowd  draws  the 
circle  so  close  that  the  combatants  have  no  room  to  use  their 

1  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic,  180. 

2  Perley's  Reminiscences,  i,  168.  3  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  60. 
4  Mary  C.  Crawford,  Romantic  Days  of  the  Early  Republic,  207. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       27 

limbs."  But  despite  the  crowded  quarters,  the  twenty-four 
fiddlers  in  a  row  bravely  sought  '*  by  dint  of  loud  music  to  put 
the  amateurs  in  motion,"  until  they  jumped  "up  and  down 
in  a  hole,  and  nobody  sees  more  of  them  than  their  heads."  l 
Queer,  conglomerate  crowds  packed  the  balls  and  receptions 
of  men  in  public  life,  forced  to  accept  official  society  as  they 
found  it,  and  if  members  of  Congress  appeared  at  the  dance 
in  their  morning  habiliments  and  in  unpolished  boots,  in 
worsted  stockings  and  in  garments  fashioned  by  a  backwoods 
tailor,  they  were  not  conspicuous.2  All,  or  most,  entered  with 
zest  into  the  social  activities  of  the  time.  On  the  night  of  a 
big  ball  "the  rolling  of  carriages  sounded  like  continual  peals 
of  thunder,  or  roaring  of  the  wind."  In  the  dark,  dismal 
streets,  the  lamps  on  the  vehicles  alone  were  visible,  and 
these,  moving  rapidly  in  the  blackness,  "appeared  like  bril 
liant  meteors  in  the  air."  3  Sometimes,  in  the  case  of  the 
more  pretentious  entertainers,  like  the  foreign  ministers,  the 
streets  in  front  of  the  houses  were  light  as  day  from  the  line 
of  flaming  torches  along  the  pavement.  Fox,  the  British  Min 
ister,  a  relative  of  the  great  orator;  Baron  von  Roenne,  the 
Prussian,  a  brilliant  jurist  and  publicist;  and  Baron  Bodisco, 
the  Russian,  made  great  displays  of  equipages  and  appoint^ 
ments,  and  were  noted  for  their  wines  and  exotic  entertain 
ments.  At  the  legations  of  Fox  and  Bodisco,  great  sums 
passed  over  the  card  table,  the  most  famous  statesmen  of  the 
time  among  the  players,  and  the  British  Minister  so  seldom 
saw  the  sun  that  on  the  occasion  of  a  funeral,  while  seated 
beside  the  wife  of  the  Spanish  Minister,  he  turned  a  puzzled 
look  upon  her  with  the  comment,  "How  strange  we  all  look 
by  daylight!"  Both  ministers  contributed  not  a  little  to  the 
gayety  of  gossip,  Bodisco,  by  his  squat  ugliness  and  courtli- 

1  Francis  Blair's  description,  quoted  in  Rufus  Rockwell  Wilson's  Washington,  the 
Capital  City. 

2  Hamilton,  in  Men  and  Manners,  describes  such  garb  at  a  ball  given  by  the 
French  Minister  to  the  members  of  Congress. 

3  First  Forty  Years,  Jan.  1.  1829. 


28    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ness,  and  Fox,  by  his  whimsical  refusal  at  dinners  to  go  to 
the  table  until  the  dishes  had  cooled.1  During  the  period  the 
most  celebrated  functions  were  given  at  Carusi's  Assembly 
rooms  which  could  accommodate  great  numbers.  Leaders  of 
fashion  and  the  socially  ambitious  of  Baltimore  and  Alex 
andria,  wishing  to  make  an  impression  in  introducing  a 
debutante  or  to  repay  social  obligations,  found  these  rooms 
suited  to  their  purpose.  It  was  in  these  rooms  that  Washing 
ton  society  had  its  first  presentation  of  the  "Barber  of  Se 
ville,"  and  "John  of  Paris"  in  the  winter  of  1833.2  The  same 
year  a  Washington  birthday  party  was  given  there,  both 
rooms  thrown  open,  "decorated  and  illuminated  and  with  a 
band  in  each,"  and  diplomats  admitted  without  an  entrance 
fee.3  Hither  all  the  ladies  of  the  capital,  unfamiliar  with  the 
dances,  or  wishing  to  learn  new  ones,  found  their  way  to 
learn  from  the  popular  Louis,  only  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather  and  the  impossible  mire  of  the  streets  interfering 
with  his  profits.4  Thus  the  fashionables  of  the  Thirties  man 
aged  to  create  the  illusion  of  living  in  the  great  world,  chatter 
ing  in  the  Senate,  bustling  into  the  Supreme  Court  chamber, 
dining,  dancing,  flirting,  gossiping,  attending  the  theater  to 
see  a  Booth  or  a  Kemble,  going  to  the  circus  to  see  the  animals 
fed  at  eight  o'clock,  "in  the  presence  pf  the  audience,"  5  or 
riding  to  the  National  Course  near  town  to  witness  the  races, 
or  attending  an  exhibit  of  the  paintings  of  John  G.  Chapman 

1  Butler,  in  his  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  refers  to  this  peculiarity  of  Fox's  (p.  61), 
and  Bodisco,  who  gave  the  most  brilliant  dinners  and  dances,  figured  in  the  cele 
brated  marriage  to  a  girl  of  seventeen  during  Van  Buren's  Administration. 

2  Washington  Globe,  Feb.  1,  1833,  announces  these  operas  with  Miss  Hughes  and 
Mrs.  Anderson  in  leading  roles. 

3  Advertisement  in  Washington  Globe. 

4  Announcing  the  opening  of  a  spring  school,  and  commenting  on  the  general  pref 
erence  for  the  spring  over  the  winter  term,  Carusi,  in  the  Globe  of  Jan.  3,  1831,  ex 
plained  the  disadvantages  of  the  winter  term  to  be  "the  disagreeable  and  long 
walks  .  .  .  the  frequent  inclemency  of  the  weather,  and  the  liability  of  sickness  from 
exposure." 

6  Advertisement  of  Birchard  &  Company's  Shows,  Washington  Globe,  June  13, 
1833. 


THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  THIRTIES       29 

on  the  Avenue.1  Only  on  Sundays  did  the  capital  become 
quiet  and  sedate,  for,  after  a  pious  morning  pilgrimage  to 
church,  the  ladies  carrying  a  hymn  or  a  prayer  book  and 
leaning  on  the  arms  of  their  escorts,  they  retired  to  the  seclu 
sion  of  their  homes  and  the  streets  were  deserted  or  given 
over  to  the  promenades  of  the  colored  folks.2 

In  this  Washington,  where  men  were  feverishly  fighting  for 
place  and  prestige,  and  women  were  engaged  in  a  hectic 
struggle  for  social  leadership,  Death  lurked  always,  for  a  less 
healthful  spot  could  not  easily  have  been  found.  Built  orig 
inally  in  a  swamp  reeking  with  malaria,  surrounded  with 
morasses,  and  with  not  a  few  of  these  in  the  heart  of  the  town, 
with  sanitation  poor  and  water  wretched,  the  residents  were 
constantly  menaced  by  disease.  With  the  gradual  disappear 
ance  of  the  forests  immediately  surrounding  it,  the  condi 
tions  became  worse.  The  death-rate  was  as  high  as  one  in 
fifty-three,  with  August  claiming  the  heaviest  toll  from 
fevers.3  Between  the  fevers  of  the  summers  and  the  influenza 
of  the  winters,  the  residents  had  to  be  constantly  on  guard. 
Whiskey  and  quinine  were  taken  with  the  regularity  of  bread 
and  meat,  and  tourists  were  wont  to  sit  late  at  their  quarters 
"sipping  gently  a  medicine  which  the  doctors  of  the  capital 
thought  destructive  of  the  influenza  germs  which  were  lying 
in  wait  for  the  unwary."  4  Fevers,  pneumonia,  influenza,  and  i 
the  cholera  made  the  swampy  capital  of  the  Thirties  as  I 
profitable  to  the  doctors  as  to  the  coachmen. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  scene  of  the  most  dramatic  and  sig 
nificant  political  battles  that  were  staged  in  America  between 
the  foundation  of  the  Republic  and  the  Administration  of 
Woodrow  Wilson.  Such  was  the  day-by-day  life  of  the  men, 

1  Chapman  had  not  then  been  given  the  contract  for  the  historical  paintings  in 
the  Capitol,  rotunda,  and  exhibited  fifty  paintings  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  near 
Fourth  Street,  in  the  winter  of  1833,  charging  twenty-five  cents  for  admission  and 
a  catalogue.  His  advertisement  in  the  Globe,  Jan.  21. 

2  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years. 

*  Six  Months  in  America.  101."  '  Figures  of  the  Peat. 


30    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

now  steel  engravings,  who  played  the  leading  r61es.  And  by 
bearing  in  mind  the  sordidness  and  pettiness  of  the  environ 
ment,  and  of  the  men  and  women  with  whom  they  daily 
and  nightly  gossiped  and  dined  and  danced,  it  may  be  less 
of  a  shock  to  discover,  in  the  unfolding  of  the  story  of  these 
eight  crowded  years,  that  even  the  greatest  were  men  of 
moral  weaknesses  and  limitations. 


CHAPTER  H 

THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES 

I 

WITH  the  election  of  1828  a  new  era  dawned  in  American 
politics.  Up  to  this  time  the  election  of  Presidents  and  the 
determination  of  policies  had  been  a  matter  of  manipulation 
among  the  congressional  politicians.  The  possessors  of 
property  and  the  aristocrats  of  intellect  had  been  the  only 
classes  with  whom  the  politicians  had  concerned  themselves. 
The  Virginia  Dynasty  and  the  Secretarial  Succession  died 
on  the  day  that  the  rising  of  the  masses  raised  to  the  Presi 
dency  a  man  who  had  never  served  in  the  Cabinet,  distin 
guished  himself  in  the  Congress,  or  appealed  to  the  "aris-^ 
tocracy  of  intellect  and  culture."  To  the  politicians,  office^ 
holders,  and  society  leaders  in  Washington,  the  election  of 
Andrew  Jackson  was  something  more  than  a  shock  —  it  was, 
an  affront.  In  the  campaign  he  had  been  opposed  by  twi 
thirds  of  the  newspapers,  four  fifths  of  the  preachers,  practi 
cally  all  the  manufacturers,  and  seven  eighths  of  the  banking 
capital.  Respectability  sternly  set  itself  against  the  pre 
sumptuous  ambitions  of  what  it  conceived  to  be  a  rough, 
illiterate  representative  of  the  "mob." 

Four  years  before,  the  stage  had  been  set  for  a  bitter  battle. 
The  election  of  Adams,  through  the  support  of  Clay,  followed 
by  the  appointment  of  the  latter  to  the  first  place  in  the 
Cabinet,  had  carried  the  suspicion  of  a  bargain,  and  this  sus 
picion  had  crystallized  into  a  firm  conviction  with  a  large 
portion  of  the  people.  Throughout  the  Adams  Administra 
tion,  its  enemies  —  and  they  were  legion  —  harped  con 
stantly  upon  the  "bargain,"  angering  the  crabbed  Adams, 
and  stinging  Clay  to  furious  denunciation,  and  this  but 
served  to  intensify  the  bitterness  of  their  foes. 


32    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

The  result  was  the  most  scurrilous  campaign  of  vilification 
the  country  had  known.  A  new  school  of  politicians,  fore 
runners  of  the  astute  and  none  too  scrupulous  managers  of 
later  days,  sprang  up  to  direct  the  fight  for  the  grim  old 
warrior  of  the  Hermitage,  and  the  fact  that  Clay  took  per 
sonal  charge  of  the  campaign  for  Adams  was  turned  with 
telling  force  against  his  chief.  Early  in  the  campaign  we  find 
the  satirical  and  caustic  Isaac  Hill,  of  the  "New  Hampshire 
Patriot,"  of  whom  we  shall  hear  much,  writing  that  "Clay  is 
managing  Adams's  campaign,  not  like  a  statesman  of  the 
Cabinet,  but  like  a  shyster,  pettifogging  in  a  bastard  suit 
before  a  country  squire."  And  lest  the  motive  for  Clay's 
interest  escape  his  readers,  we  find  Hill  writing  again:  "This 
is  Mr.  Clay's  fight.  The  country  has  him  on  trial  for  bribery, 
and  having  no  defense,  he  accuses  the  prosecutor." 
V^This  reference  to  the  accusation  of  the  prosecutor  was 
ntispired  by  the  outrageous  calumny  that  was  heaped  upon 
I  the  head  of  Jackson.  He  was  pictured  as  a  usurper,  an  adul- 
Iterer,  a  gambler,  a  cockfighter,  a  brawler,  a  drunkard,  and 
T^*  murderer.  Thejgood  name  of  Mrs^.Jackson.  one  of  the 
purest  of  women,  was  wantonly  maligned :  and  in  the  draw 
ing-rooms  of  the  intellectually  elect  she  was  not  spared  by  the 
ladies  who  were  shocked  at  the  "vulgarity"  of  her  husband. 
The  Adams  organs  stooped  to  the  attack,  and  while  the 
"National  Intelligencer,"  under  the  editorship  of  Joseph 
Gales,  refused  thus  to  pollute  its  columns,  the  "National 
Journal,"  under  the  editorial  management  of  Peter  Force, 
and  specially  favored  by  the  Adams  Administration,  spe 
cialized  on  the  slander  of  an  excellent  woman.  A  little  later 
an  attempt  was  made  to  justify  the  infamy  of  this  proceeding 
by  charging  that  Mrs.  Adams  had  been  assailed,  but  the 
extent  of  the  assault  was  the  charge  that  she  was  an  English 
woman  with  little  sympathy  for  American  institutions. 

While  history  has  accepted  Adams's  indignant  denial  of  the 
charge  that  he  had  personally  sanctioned  the  attack  on  Mrs. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  33 

Jackson,  the  National  Central  Committee,  in  charge  of  his 
campaign,  was  busily  engaged  in  the  dissemination  of  the 
putrid  literature.  This  has  been  thoroughly  established  by 
the  testimony  of  Thurlow  Weed,  editor  of  the  "Albany  Jour 
nal,"  who  refused  to  degrade  himself  by  its  circulation.  When, 
early  in  August,  before  the  election  in  November,  he  received 
"two  large  drygoods  boxes"  of  the  pamphlets,  with  a  letter 
from  the  National  Committee  advising  him  that  they  con 
tained  "valuable  campaign  documents,"  with  the  request 
that  he  attend  to  their  circulation  "throughout  the  western 
counties  of  the  State,"  he  promptly  "secured  the  boxes  with 
additional  nails  and  placed  them  under  lock  and  key."  And 
when  the  National  Committee  learned  that  they  were  not 
being  distributed,  and  sent  a  representative  to  protest  against 
his  inactivity,  he  frankly  informed  the  emissary  that  "not  a 
copy  had  been  seen  or  would  be  seen  by  an  elector  until  the 
polls  had  closed."  For  this  he  was  denounced  in  New  York 
and  Boston  as  "a  traitor  to  the  Administration,"  but  the 
sagacious  politician  of  Albany  stoutly  maintained  that  he 
"would  not  permit  a  lady  whose  life  had  been  blameless  to  be 
dragged  forth  into  the  arena  of  politics."  1 

The  charge  of  murder  lodged  against  Jackson,  by  editor, 
hack-writer,  and  cartoonist,  had  reference  to  his  execution  of 
Arbuthnot,  two  Indian  chiefs,  and  seven  of  his  soldiers,  and 
to  his  duel  with  Dickinson.  Pictures  of  the  coffins  of  the 
soldiers  were  printed  on  circulars  and  distributed  from  farm 
house  to  farmhouse  in  New  England.2  This  gave  Hill  an 
opportunity  to  tickle  Jackson  with  a  rejoinder  which  was 
copied  from  the  "New  Hampshire  Patriot"  into  all  the  Jack 
son  papers  of  the  country:  "Pshaw!  Why  don't  you  tell  the 
whole  truth?  On  the  8th  of  January,  1815,  he  murdered  in 
the  coldest  kind  of  cold  blood  1500  British  soldiers  for  merely 

1  Weed's  Autobiography,  308-09. 

2  Bradley 's  Life  of  Isaac  Hill.    This  circular  may  be  seen  in  the  Congressional 
Library. 


34    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

^x 
trying  to  get  into  New  Orleans  in  search  of  Booty  and 

Beauty." 

But  all  the  scurrility  of  the  campaign  cannot  be  justly 
charged  to  the  enemies  of  Jackson.  His  friends  were  almost 
as  offensive.  Adams  had  bribed  Clay.  He  had  bought  the 
Presidency.  While  abroad  he  had  pandered  to  the  sensuality 
of  the  Russian  Court.  He  was  stingy,  undemocratic,  an 
enemy  of  American  institutions,  bent  on  the  destruction  of 
the  people's  liberties.  He  was  an  aristocrat,  and  had  squan 
dered  the  people's  money  in  lavishly  furnishing  the  East 
Room  of  the  White  House  after  the  fashion  of  the  homes  of 
kings.  He  had  even  purchased  a  billiard  table  for  the  home 
of  the  President! 

And  so  it  went  on  for  weeks  and  months  —  the  ordinary 
slanders  of  a  present-day  municipal  campaign.  A  foreigner 
traveling  through  the  country  during  the  summer  and  au 
tumn  of  1828  would  have  thought  the  election  of  Adams  cer 
tain.  In  the  marts,  the  counting-rooms,  and  the  drawing- 
rooms,  he  would  have  found  but  one  opinion;  but  the  astute 
Adams  sensed  the  coming  disaster  and  recorded  his  misgiv 
ings  in  his  diary.  The  temperamental  Clay  was  depressed  one 
day,  to  be  exultant  the  next.  But  the  new  school  of  political 
leadership,  managing  the  fight  for  Jackson,  and  devoting 
itself  assiduously  to  the  newly  enfranchised  "mob"  in  the 
highways  and  the  byways,  had  no  notion  of  defeat.  The 
"hurrah  for  Jackson"  which  shocked  the  sedate,  unaccus 
tomed  to  such  noisy  acclaim  of  a  presidential  aspirant,  and 
disgusted,  the  "best  people,"  was  music  to  the  ears  of  these 
modern  politicians,  who  had  carefully  calculated  upon  the 
strength  of  the  "mob."  Their  confidence  was  not  misplaced. 
The  result  was  an  upheaval.  Adams,  Clay,  Federalism,  the 
»  -the  Secretarial  jSiccession^^wege  brushed 


asideby_the_rush  of  the  cheering  masses  hearing  their  hero 
to  the  White  House.  History  has  decided  that  in  this  cam- 
paign  "  the  people  first  assumed  control  of  the  governmental 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  35 

machinery  which  had  been  held  in  trust  for  them  since 
1789";  and  that  "the  party  and  Administration  which  then 
came  into  power  was  the  first  in  our  history  which  repre 
sented  the  people  without  restriction,  and  with  all  the  faults 
of  the  people."  1 
• 

n 

THE  Administration  circle  in  Washington  was  deeply  de 
pressed  by  the  result,  and  society  looked  forward  to  the  reign 
of  the  barbarians  with  mingled  feelings  of  mirth  and  abhor 
rence.  Although  not  unprepared  for  the  defeat,  the  bitter 
Adams,  meditating  on  his  political  blunders,  recorded  that 
"some  think  I  have  suffered  for  not  turning  my  enemies  out 
of  office,  particularly  the  Postmaster-General."  2  That  John 
McLean,  the  official  referred  to,  had  been  disloyal  to  his  chief 
was  common  knowledge.  The  first  reaction  to  defeat  from 
.the  followers  of  the  Adams  Administration  was  toward 
laughter,  levity,  extravagant  manifestation  of  cynical  gayety, 
with  an  all  too  noticeable  thawing  of  the  frigidity  of  White 
House  ceremonies.  The  dying  regime  put  on  its  best  bib  and 
tucker  in  a  hectic  and  hysterical  demonstration  of  social 
hilarity.  But  this  first  reaction  was  short-lived.  Very  soon 
thereafter  callers  at  Clay's  home  yrere  "shocked  at  the  alter 
ation  of  his  looks,"  and  found  him  "much  thinner,  Very 
pale,  his  eyes  sunk  in  his  head  and  his  countenance  sad  and 
melancholy."  3  Mr.  Rush  (Secretary  of  the  Treasury)  was 
soon  "alarmingly  ill"  —  the  "first  symptoms  of  disease  was 
altogether  in  the  head."  Mr.  Southard  (Secretary  of  the 
Navy)  was  confined  to  his  room  for  three  weeks.  William 
Wirt  (Attorney-General)  suffered  two  attacks  of  vertigo, 
"followed  by  a  loss  of  the  sense  of  motion."  General  Porter 
(Secretary  of  War)  "was  almost  blind  from  inflammation  of 
the  eyes  and  went  to  his  office  with  two  blisters,  one  behind 

1  Johnston  and  Woodburn's  American  Political  History. 

2  Adams's  Memoirs.  ^Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years,  Jan.  1,  1829. 


36    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

each  ear."  Even  the  cold-blooded  Adams,  who  appeared  "in 
fine  spirits,"  was  soon  "so  feeble  as  to  be  obliged  to  relin 
quish  his  long  walks  and  to  substitute  rides  on  horseback."  1 
A  social  intimate  of  the  leaders  swept  from  power  by  the 
rising  of  the  masses  mournfully  recorded  that  they  would 
retire  to  private  life  "with  blasted  hopes,  injured  health, 
impaired  or  ruined  fortunes,  imbittered  tempers,  and  proba 
bly  a  total  inability  to  enjoy  the  remnant  of  their  lives."  2 

On  none  did  the  blow  fall  with  such  crushing  force  as  on 
the  proud-spirited  Clay.  As  the  repudiated  regime  was  ap 
proaching  the  end,  the  presiding  genius  of  one  of  the  favorite 
Administration  drawing-rooms  met  him  at  a  reception. 

"What  ails  your  heart?"  he  asked. 

"  Can  it  be  otherwise  than  sad  when  I  think  what  a  good 
friend  I  am  about  to  lose?  " 

For  a  moment  he  held  her  hand  without  speaking,  his  eyes 
"filled  with  tears." 

"We  must  not  think  of  this  or  talk  of  such  things  now,"  he 
said.  And  with  that  he  relinquished  her  hand,  "drew  out  his 
handkerchief,  turned  away  his  head  and  wiped  his  eyes,  then 
pushed  into  the  crowd  and  talked  and  smiled  as  if  his  heart 
were  light  and  easy."  3 

On  February  25th  this  lady  made  another  poignant  note: 
"Mr.  Clay's  furniture  is  to  be  sold  this  week." 

Thus  the  old  regime  died  hard,  and  in  bitterness. 

ra 

BUT  "The  King  is  dead  —  long  live  the  King"  —  was  the 
mood  of  the  strange  crowds  in  the  streets  of  the  capital  — 
unusual  creatures  from  the  out-of-the-way  places  to  whom 
the  city  was  not  accustomed.  Never  before  had  the  inaugural 
ceremonies  attracted  the  people  of  the  farms  and  the  villages, 
from  every  nook  and  corner.  Long  before  the  4th  of  March 

1  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years,  Jan.  1,  1829. 

2  Ibid.,  Jan.  12,  1829.  *  Ibid. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  37 

the  city  swarmed  with  all  sorts  and  conditions,  the  rustic,  the 
rural  politician,  the  adventurer,  along  with  politicians  of 
influence  and  repute.  They  overflowed  the  city,  filled  all 
the  hotels  and  rooming-houses,  spread  out  to  Georgetown, 
descended  on  Alexandria.1  Webster,  writing  to  his  brother 
toward  the  close  of  February,  said:  "I  have  never  seen  such 
a  crowd  before.  Persons  have  come  five  hundred  miles  to  see 
General  Jackson,  and  they  really  seem  to  think  that  the 
country  has  been  rescued  from  some  dreadful  danger."  2 
What  they  really  thought  was  that  they  had  come  into  their 
own.  They  hastened  to  "their  capital,"  to  witness  the  inau 
guration  of  "their  President,"  and,  in  many  instances,  in  the 
hope  of  entering  into  their  reward. 

Out  of  the  maze  of  incomprehensible  contradictions,  we 
may  gather  that  Jackson  disappointed  many  of  the  faithful, 
who  had  planned  a  spectacular  entrance  to  the  capital,  by 
entering  quietly  and  unannounced  in  the  early  morning. 
Elaborate  preparations  had  been  made,  a  pompous  reception 
committee  of  the  socially  elect  and  politically  pure  had  been 
organized,  headed  by  John  P.  Van  Ness,  the  dean  of  society 
and  husband  of  the  exquisite  Marcia  Burns,  and  plans  had 
been  perfected  for  leading  a  great  throng  into  the  country 
to  meet  and  escort  him  to  the  accompaniment  of  gun  fire 
into  the  city.  Reaching  the  capital  four  hours  before  he 
was  expected,3  he  went  directly  to  Gadsby's  where  he  took 
lodging.4 

But  the  committee  was  not  to  be  wholly  deprived  of  its 
prerogatives.  The  moment  the  news  reached  it  and  the 
crowds,  the  celebration  began.  "I  hear  cannon  firing,  drums 
beating,  and  hurrahing.  I  really  cannot  write,  so  adieu  for 

1  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years. 

2  Webster's  Correspondence.  *  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years. 

4  Buell,  in  his  Life  of  Jackson,  says  he  went  to  the  Indian  Queen,  "where  he  was 
temporarily  domiciled."  Mrs.  Smith  and  President  Adams,  who  were  on  the 
ground,  agree  that  he  stopped  at  Gadsby's.  It  is  possible  that  he  went  first  to 
the  Indian  Queen  and  then  removed  to  Gadsby's. 


38    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  present,"  wrote  Mrs.  Smith.  The  mob  surged  down  the 
Avenue  to  the  hostelry  famous  for  its  whiskey,  brandy,  game, 
and  the  imposing  ceremony  of  the  host,  packed  the  streets  and 
fought  for  the  privilege  of  entering  and  shaking  the  hand  of 
the  man  of  the  hour.  From  the  moment  of  his  arrival  until 
he  took  the  oath  of  office  he  was  accessible  to  the  most 
htimble  and  obscure.  Importuned  and  petitioned  by  ambi 
tious  politicians,  the  old  man  courteously  heard  them  all,  to 
the  last  man,  and,  according  to  all  contemporaries,  kept  his 
own  counsel  as  to  prospective  appointments.  Even  as  late  as 
March  2d,  the  observant  Webster  wrote  his  brother  that  the 
President-to-be  was  close-mouthed,  and  predicted  that  there 
would  be  few  removals.1  The  crafty  Isaac  Hill,  of  the  "New 
Hampshire  Patriot,"  had  arrived  early  upon  the  scene,  and 
we  are  indebted  to  him  for  a  side-light  on  Jackson's  methods 
and  mood,  and  the  scenes  about  the  hotel.  Almost  daily  this 
persistent  aspirant  for  place  wormed  his  way  into  the  pres 
ence  of  the  source  of  all  patronage.  Jackson  was  cordial, 
remembered,  quoted,  laughed  about  witticisms  in  Hill's 
paper  during  the  campaign,  but  said  "little  about  the  future 
except  in  a  general  way."  There  was  cruel  hilarity  in  that 
crowded  room  at  Gadsby's  over  the  maneuvers  of  the  office 
holders  to  retain  their  places.  A  "funny  story"  was  told  of 
Wirt  writing  to  Monroe  "soliciting  his  influence  with  the 
General  to  keep  him  on  the  pay  roll."2  An  old  translator  of 
twenty  years'  experience  in  the  State  Department  had,  in 
conversation,  expressed  a  curiosity  to  know  where  a  Demo 
crat  could  be  found  to  translate  diplomatic  French,  and  this 
was  jokingly  related  to  Jackson.  "Oh,  just  tell  him,"  said 
the  General,  "that  if  necessary  I  can  bring  Planche's  whole 
Creole  Battalion  up  here.  Those  French  fellows,  you  know, 
who  helped  to  defend  New  Orleans  against  the  Red  Coats 

1  Webster's  Correspondence. 

2  Wirt  wrote  Monroe  asking  his  advice  about  resigning,  and  Monroe  advised  this 
course,  but  expressed  the  opinion  that  Jackson  would  not  want  to  dispense  with  his 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  39 

that  had  just  made  all  the  translators  here  take  to  the  woods 
for  their  lives."  This  flare  of  spirit  gratified  and  encouraged 
the  spoilsmen.  "  Good,  was  n't  it?  "  Hill  wrote  to  his  assistant 
in  Concord.  "Besides  his  courage  and  truth,  Old  Hickory 
has  a  fund  of  humor  in  his  make-up,  but  most  of  his  sallies, 
like  the  above,  are  likely  to  be  a  little  bit  cruel." 

About  the  time  that  Hill  was  writing  to  his  assistant  editoij, 
he  was  meeting  daily,  at  the  home  of  Obadiah  B.  Brown,  A 
preacher-politician,  where  Amos  Kendall,  a  Kentucky  editor] 
then  obscure,  but  destined  to  become  the  master  mind  of  the) 
Administration,  was  holding  forth,  and  organizing  a  number 
of  fellow  journalists  who  had  been  useful  in  the  campaign,  to! 
compel  recognition.  There,  in  the  home  of  the  jovial  preacher, 
Kendall  and  Hill  were  making  common  cause  with  the  smil 
ing  Major  M.  M.  Noah  of  New  York,  Nathaniel  Green  of 
Massachusetts,  and  the  quiet  but  sagacious  Gideon  Welles 
of  Connecticut.  More  political  history  was  being  made  in  the 
humble  abode  of  Brown  than  in  the  crowded,  smoke-laden 
room  at  Gadsby's.1  The  Kentucky  editor  does  not  seem  to 
have  encountered  the  same  reticence  in  Jackson  that  Hill  had 
found.  After  his  first  call  at  Gadsby's,  we  find  him  writing 
his  wife:  "He  expressed  his  regards  for  me  and  his  disposition 
to  serve  me,  in  strong  terras."  And  a  few  days  later,  after  his 
second  call,  he  writes:  'The  other  day  I  had  a  long  conver 
sation  with  General  Jackson.  At  the  close  of  it,  after  say 
ing  many  flattering  things  of  my  capacity,  character,  etc.,  he 
observed,  'I  told  one  of  my  friends  that  you  were  fit  for  the 
head  of  a  department,  and  I  shall  put  you  as  near  the  head  as 
possible.' "  2 

It  is  significant  of  the  change  of  the  times  that,  while  the 
practical  politicians  of  the  new  school  were  encouraged  and 
jubilant,  the  seasoned  veterans  of  political  battle-fields  were 
discouraged  and  not  a  little  disgruntled.  Amusing  tales  of 
the  discomfiture  of  these  were  gayly  carried  to  the  politicians 

iPerley's  Reminiscences,  I,  96.  *  Amos  Kendall's  Autobiography. 


40    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

of  the  Opposition  in  the  salon  of  Mrs.  Smith,  who  recorded, 
toward  the  close  of  February,  that  "every  one  thinks  there  is 
great  confusion  and  difficulty*  mortification  and  disappoint 
ment  at  the  Wigwam,  as  they  call  the  General's  lodgings. 
Mr.  Woodbury *  looks  glum,  as  well  as  several  other  disap 
pointed  expectants."  2 

"he  battle  royal  occurred  in  the  selection  of  the  Cabinet, 
le  one  principle  on  which  Jackson  was  determined  was  the 
[exclusion  from  his  Cabinet  table  of  any  aspirant  for  the  suc 
cession.  He  had  been  profoundly  impressed  by  the  demoraliz- 
ling  effect  of  the  intrigues  of  the  presidential  candidates  in 
[the  Cabinet  of  Monroe.3  This,  however,  did  not  deter  the 
:wo  powerful  men  of  the  party,  Calhoun  and  Van  Buren, 
from  exerting  themselves  to  pack  the  Cabinet  with  men 
favorable  to  their  respective  aspirations  for  the  chief  magis 
tracy.  Of  the  latter 's  plans  the  President-elect  knew  nothing. 
He  had  probably  decided  to  ask  the  clever  New  York  politi 
cian  to  accept  the  portfolio  of  State  before  leaving**!^  Hermit 
age.  He  had  been  intimate  with  Van  Buren  in  the^Senate; 
had  been  impressed  with  his  tact,  diplomacy,  and  ability,  and 
especially  with  his  genius  in  the  creation,  consolidation,  and 
drilling  of  a  party,  and  in  formulating  its  policies.  He  was 
not  unmindful  of  the  part  the  "jj^dj^Qx"4  had  played  in  his 
nomination  and  election.  In  viewoFall  the  conditions  the 
selection  of  Van  Buren  was  logical  and  inevitable.5  It  was 
just  as  inevitablethat  Calhoun,  the  Vice-President,  should 
be  hostile  to  the  choice.  Primarily,  we  may  be  sure,  the  South 
Carolinian  recognized  in  the  suave  and  subtle  New  Yorker 
a  dangerous  rival  for  the  succession.  Whether  he  was  even 
that  early  interested  in  strengthening  the  South  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  North  is  not  so  certain.  However  that  may 
be,  he  appeared  in  the  throng  of  wire-pulling  politicians  at 

1  Later  in  the  Cabinet.  2  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years,  283. 

8  Adams,  Crawford,  and  Calhoun.  *  Van  Buren  was  thus  known  in  his  day. 

5  Van  Buren  in  his  Autobiography  ascribes  his  selection  to  the  party  managers. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  41 

Gadsby's,  earnestly  urging  that  Senator  Tazewell  of  Virginia 
should  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Cabinet.  This  able 
statesman  but  a  little  time  before  had  maintained  close  polit 
ical  relations  with  Van  Buren,1  but  he  was  an  extreme  State- 
Rights  advocate,  entirely  satisfactory  to  Calhoun.  During 
the  half-concealed  struggle  over  the  Cabinet,  Van  Buren, 
who  had  been  elected  Governor  of  New  York  and  was  stay 
ing  in  Albany,  was  well  served  in  Washington  by  James  A. 
Hamilton,  whose  mission  was  to  keep  in  intimate  touch  with 
events  and  inform  the  New  Yorker  of  all  developments. 
Thus  it  happened  that  Hamilton  was  with  Jackson  when, 
at  ten  o'clock  one  morning,  Calhoun  called  for  a  conference 
with  the  President-elect.  "I  know  what  it  is  about,"  said 
Jackson  to  Van  Buren's  agent.  "He  cannot  succeed.  I  wish 
you  to  remain  until  he  leaves."  It  was  during  this  conference, 
the  last  he  ever  had  with  the  President  on  patronage  matters, 
that  Calhoun  made  his  final  stand  for  Tazewell,  or  against 
Van  Buren.  With  great  solemnity  he  urged  the  appointment 
of  the  Virginian,  largely  because  of  "his  great  knowledge 
and  wisdom,"  but  partly  on  the  ground  that  it  would  assure 
the  support  of  Virginia  for  the  Administration.  It  is  doubt 
ful  whether,  up  to  this  time,  Calhoun  had  appreciated  the 
political  sagacity  of  the  man  with  whom  he  dealt.  Jackson 
listened  to  his  importunity  with  courteous  attention,  but  did 
not  commit  himself.  One  suggestion  he  made,  however, 
which  must  have  warned  the  great  Carolinian  that  his  mo 
tives  were  divined.  When  Calhoun  stressed  the  importance 
of  cultivating  Virginia,  Jackson  blandly  inquired  whether  it 
would  not  be  useful  to  have  the  support  of  New  York.  Cal- 
houn's  reply  disclosed  his  animus  against  the  "Little  Magi 
cian."  The  appointment  of  Clinton,  had  he  lived,  might  have 
guaranteed  the  support  of  the  Empire  State,  but  the  selection 
of  no  other  citizen  of  that  State  would.  He  left,  no  doubt, 

1  See  letter  of  Tazewell  to  Ritchie  regarding  the  establishment  of  a  party  organ 
in  Washington  in  Ambler's  Life  of  Thomas  Ritchie. 


42    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

with  the  feeling  that  he  had  failed  in  his  mission,  and  never 
again  approached  Jackson  on  the  subject  of  appointments. 
And  the  moment  he  left,  a  detailed  story  of  the  conference 
was  given  to  Hamilton,  who  promptly  sent  it  to  his  chief  in 
Albany.1 

When  Jackson  reached  the  capital  he  had  made  no  decision 
as  to  the  Treasury,  and  there  he  was  to  be  buffeted  about  by 
many  cross-currents.  Van  Buren,  who  was  socially  and  polit 
ically  intimate  with  Louis  McLane  of  Delaware,  was  anxious 
that  he  should  be  named  for  the  post,  and  the  gentleman 
himself  was  on  the  ground  ready  to  respond  to  the  summons 
that  failed  to  come.  The  political  tacticians  at  Gadsby's 
reached  the  decision  early  that  the  place  should  be  awarded 
to  Pennsylvania,  and  Samuel  D.  Ingham,  who  had  rushed  to 
Washington  as  a  representative  of  one  of  the  factions,  with 
an  application  for  a  subordinate  position  in  the  Treasury, 
became  an  active  candidate  for  the  more  important  honor. 
This  was  displeasing  to  Jackson,  who  favored  Henry  Bald 
win,  but  in  this  preference  he  was  unable  to  secure  any 
important  support  among  his  advisers.2  Strangely  enough, 
powerful  influences  almost  immediately  rushed  to  the  sup 
port  of  the  man  who  would  have  been  delighted  with  a  com 
paratively  obscure  position.  The  Pennsylvania  congressional 
delegation,  on  which  he  had  served  for  years,  unanimously 
endorsed  him.  Stranger  still,  Calhoun,  with  whom  Jackson 
at  this  juncture  had  no  desire  to  break,  became  an  ardent 
supporter  of  his  candidacy.  He  had  served  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  many  years  before  with  the  mediocre  Penn- 
sylvanian,  and  had  found  in  him  one  of  his  most  faithful  idol 
aters.  That  his  influence,  and  the  desire  to  recognize  him  in 
the  making  of  the  Cabinet,  was  the  determining  factor,  was 
the  consensus  u£lU|jaBgft  a^  the  time. 

But  here  again  appeared  cross-currents  difficult  to  under- 

1  See  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  101. 

2  See  ibid.,  p.  97,  on  Ingham's  original  ambition. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  43 

stand.  South  Carolina,  usually  so  subservient  to  the  wishes 
of  her  great  statesman,  but  now  cool  toward  him,  was  un 
compromisingly  hostile  to  his  favorite  for  the  Treasury.  The 
other  leading  members  of  the  South  Carolina  delegation, 
known  to  be  opposed  to  Ingham  and  to  prefer  McLane  to 
him,  had  hesitated  from  motives  of  delicacy  to  make  their 
views  known  to  Jackson;  and  Van  Buren's  favorite  for  the 
position  authorized  Hamilton,  Van  Buren's  emissary,  to  no 
tify  the  General  of  their  willingness  to  call  if  their  opinion 
was  wanted.1  On  February  17th,  the  Carolinians,  including 
Senator  Hayne,  McDuffie,  Hamilton,  Archer,  and  Drayton, 
filed  into  the  throne  room  at  Gadsby's,  and  Hamilton,  who 
acted  as  spokesman,  began  by  tactfully  commending  the 
selection  of  Van  Buren,  and  then  turned  to  the  Treasury. 
Before  he  could  announce  his  candidate,  Jackson  interrupted 
with  the  announcement  that  Ingham  had  been  chosen. 
Nothing  daunted,  Hamilton  suggested  as  a  better  choice  the 
brilliant  Langdon  Cheves  of  South  Carolina.  "Impossible," 
snapped  the  grim  old  man.  Then  why  not  McLane?  That, 
too,  was  instantly  dismissed,  and  the  Carolinians  left  Gads 
by's  in  a  rage.  "I  assure  you  I  am  cool  —  damn  cool  —  never 
half  so  cool  in  my  life,"  Hamilton  exclaimed  immediately 
afterwards.2 

For  the  War  Department  there  was  no  such  competition, 
and  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made  to  con 
ciliate  Tazewell  with  the  post,  Jackson,  who  was  anxious  to 
have  among  his  advisers  one  of  his  old  friends  and  managers, 
satisfied  himself  with  the  selection  of  Senator  John  H.  Eaton 
of  Tennessee. 

The  processes  of  reasoning  leading  to  the  appointment  of 

1  Hamilton,  in  his  Reminiscences,  p.  99,  makes  this  unqualified  statement.  Pro 
fessor  Bassett,  in  his  admirable  Life  of  Jackson,  p.  416,  says  that  Jackson  told  Cal- 
houn  to  notify  the  delegation  of  his  willingness  to  see  them.  Knowing  the  delega 
tion  to  be  opposed  to  the  man  he  favored,  and  to  prefer  Van  Buren's  candidate,  it 
seems  more  probable  that  Hamilton  was  the  emissary  and  not  the  Carolinian. 

a  The  Carolinian's  opposition  to  Ingham  was  due  to  his  tariff  views. 


44    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Senator  John  Branch  of  North  Carolina  as  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  have  been  lost  to  history  and  there  is  no  clue.  We  know 
that  Van  Buren  and  his  friends  strongly  urged  the  selection 
of  Woodbury  of  New  Hampshire;  and  McLane  expressed  the 
contemporary  state  of  mind  in  a  letter  to  his  friend:  "By 
what  interest  that  miserable  old  woman,  Branch,  was  ever 
dreamed  of,  no  one  can  tell."  This  much  we  know  —  that 
Branch  himself  did  not  have  the  most  remote  idea  of  entering 
the  Cabinet  when  the  invitation  reached  him  from  Gadsby's, 
and  he  withheld  his  acceptance  until  he  could  consult  with  a 
number  of  his  friends.1  Two  reasons  have  been  advanced  as 
probable.  The  one,  popular  at  the  time,  was  that  Jackson's 
advisers  thought  that  something  should  be  done  to  promote 
the  social  prestige  of  the  Administration;  and  the  other, 
generally  accepted  by  historians,  that  the  appointment  was 
made  as  another  concession  to  Calhoun.  While  the  Carolin 
ian  made  no  request  for  his  inclusion  in  the  Cabinet,  Branch 
was  one  of  his  most  loyal  followers. 

There  is  no  real  justification  for  astonishment  over  the 
decision  of  the  conferees  at  the  Wigwam  to  ask  Senator  John 
McPherson  Berrien  of  Georgia  to  accept  the  position  of 
Attorney-General.  Not  only  was  he  a  brilliant  member  of  the 
Senate,  noted  as  an  orator,  but  his  professional  reputation  in 
his  section  was  almost  as  great  as  that  of  Webster  in  New 
England.  His  votes  in  the  Senate  on  the  party  measures  of 
the  Adams  Administration  had  been  pleasing  to  Jackson, 
and,  whether  he  was  named  as  another  gesture  of  good-will 
toward  Calhoun,  as  generally  assumed,  or  not,  his  appoint 
ment  could  not  have  been  displeasing  to  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

While  the  Postmaster-General  had  not  hitherto  been  a 
member  of  the  Cabinet,  the  Jackson  board  of  strategy,  wish 
ing  to  manifest  its  appreciation  of  John  McLean,  who  had 
held  the  post  under  Adams  while  exerting  himself  on  behalf 

1  From  speech  of  Branch,  quoted  in  Hay  wood's  brochure  on  Branch,  pp.  14-15. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  45 

of  Jackson,  determined  to  raise  the  position  to  the  Cabinet 
and  retain  him.1 

Thus  the  Cabinet  was  completed,  and  after  a  fashion  in 
dicative  of  no  desire  on  the  part  of  Jackson  to  quarrel  with 
his  Vice-President.  Van  Buren,  who  did  not  enter  into  the 
President's  calculations  as  to  the  succession,  had  been  given 
the  most  desirable  post,  but  his  friends,  McLane  and  Wood- 
bury,  had  been  set  aside  for  Ingham  and  Branch,  both  de 
voted  to  the  political  fortunes  of  Calhoun.  The  latter  was 
represented  by  half  the  Cabinet,  Ingham,  Branch,  and  Ber- 
rien,  and  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  could  make  the  other 
two  members,  Eaton  and  McLean,  other  than  absolutely 
independent  of  the  wily  politician  of  Kinderhook.  The  proc 
esses  through  which  all  this  was  speedily  changed  enter  into 
one  of  the  most  fascinating  dramas  of  political  intrigue  in  the 
history  of  the  Republic. 

IV 

WHILE  the  President-elect  was  holding  his  conferences,  with 
the  mysterious  Major  Lewis  going  in  and  out  at  Gadsby's 
and  playing  with  the  destinies  of  men,  and  the  streets  were 
seething  with  an  incongruous  crowd  shouting  their  "Hurrah 
for  Jackson,"  Jackson  was  remaining  coldly  aloof  from  the 
occupant  of  the  White  House.  He  had  carried  to  Washington 
a  hitter  res.en±pient  against  Adams  and  his  personal  lieuten 
ants,  because  of  the  dastardly  attacks  upon  the  woman  then 
buried  at  the  Hermjj-flgf*  ^  ™arf*»  n»  cm.ll  ^f-rmglgfiy^  and 
Adarnsjvasjstung  to  the  quick.  Especially  painful  to  the  old 
Puritan  was  ihe  thought  that  he  had  been  considered  capable 
of  a  vulgar  assault  upon  the  good  name  of  a  woman.  After 
much  struggling  with  his  pride,  he  made  the  first  advance  by 
sending  a  messenger  to  Jackson  to  inform  him  that  the  White 
House  would  be  ready  for  his  occupancy  on  the  4th  of  March. 

1  Adams  knew  of  McLean's  treachery,  and  in  his  Memoirs  denounces  him  bit 
terly. 


46    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

"He  brought  me  the  answer,"  Adams  records,  "that  the 
General  cordially  thanked  him,  and  hoped  that  I  would  put 
myself  to  no  inconvenience  to  quit  the  house,  but  to  remain 
in  it  as  long  as  I  pleased,  even  for  a  month."  1  A  few  days 
later,  Adams  sent  his  messenger  to  say  that  his  packing 
might  require  two  or  three  days  beyond  the  3d,  and  Jackson 
replied  that  he  did  not  wish  to  put  him  to  the  slightest  incon 
venience,  "but  that  Mr.  Calhoun  had  suggested  that  there 
might  be  danger  of  the  excessive  crowds  breaking  down  the 
rooms  at  Gadsby's,  and  the  General  had  concluded,  if  it 
would  be  perfectly  convenient  to  us,  to  receive  his  company 
at  the  President's  house  after  the  inauguration  on  Wednes 
day  next."  Whereupon  Adams  "concluded  at  all  events  to 
leave  the  house  on  Tuesday." 2  Thus  the  closing  days  of  his 
Administration  must  have  been  bitter,  indeed,  to  the  proud 
old  Puritan  of  the  White  House.  Deliberately  ignored  by  his 
successor,  tortured  by  the  thought  of  the  treachery  of  Mc 
Lean  and  others,  the  co-workers  of  his  regime,  depressed, 
embittered,  or  in  hiding,  he  appears  to  have  been  utterly 
forgotten  by  the  society  of  the  capital  as  well  as  by  the 
general  public.  Justice  Story  observing  his  isolation  was 
moved  to  write  in  bitterness  to  a  friend  that  he  had  never 
"felt  so  forcibly  the  emptiness  of  public  honors  and  public 
favor."  Certainly  no  generous  sympathy  was  felt  for  him  by 
his  triumphant  foes.  When,  on  the  last  Sunday  before  the 
inauguration,  the  pastor  of  the  President's  church  unhappily 
selected  for  his  text,  "What  will  ye  do  on  the  solemn  day?" 
one  of  Jackson's  courtiers,  who  had  attended  the  services, 
hurried  back  to  Gadsby's,  and  the  company  assembled  there 
went  into  gales  of  laughter,  and  agreed  that  it  would  be,  for 
some,  a  "solemn  day." 

That  day  was  heralded  by  the  thunder  of  cannon  —  a 
day  of  warmth  and  sunshine.    All  roads  led  to  the  Capitol, 
and  from  an  early  hour  the  thoroughfares  were  thronged 
1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Feb.  24,  1829.  *  Ibid.,  Feb.  28,  1829. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  47 

with  the  eager,  enthusiastic,  motley  crowd,  rejoicing  audibly 
in  the  event.  Down  the  Avenue  the  good-natured  mob  fought 
its  way,  the  splendid  Barronet  and  the  stately  coaches 
splashed  by  the  wagons  and  the  carts,  women  and  children 
in  exquisite  finery  crowded  by  women  and  children  in  home 
spun  and  rags,  statesmen  jostled  by  uncouth  frontiersmen, 
the  laborer  brushing  inconsiderately,  and  perhaps  a  little 
arrogantly,  against  the  banker  —  for  it  was  the  People's 
Day.  When,  at  eleven  o'clock,  the  aristocratic  Mrs.  Smith  set 
forth  with  her  company,  she  found  the  Avenue  one  living 
mass,  flowing  sluggishly  eastward,  with  every  terrace  and 
portico  and  balcony  packed,  and  with  all  the  windows  of  the 
Capitol  crowded,  some  to  observe  the  approach  on  the  west, 
and  others  to  witness  the  ceremony  on  the  east.  When  the 
mob  caught  sight  of  Jackson  and  his  party  walking  from 
Gadsby's  in  democratic  fashion,  it  pressed  in  upon  him,  im 
peding  his  approach,  but  seeming  in  nowise  to  challenge  his 
displeasure,  for  he  alone  of  his  party  walked  with  bared  head. 
The  spectators  on  the  south  terrace  thrilled  to  the  scene  — 
an  American  king  going  to  his  coronation,  acclaimed  and 
accompanied  by  the  plain  people.  The  ceremonies  over,  he 
fought  his  way  to  his  waiting  horse  —  and  down  the  Avenue 
he  rode,  followed  by  the  most  picturesque  cortege  that  ever 
trailed  a  conqueror  —  gentlemen  of  society  and  backwoods 
men,  scholars  and  the  illiterate,  white  and  black,  the  old 
hobbling  on  crutches  and  canes  and  children  clinging  to  their 
mothers'  gowns,  walking  and  riding  in  carriages  and  wagons 
and  carts  —  following  to  the  People's  House. 

There  the  unwieldy  mob,  in  carnival  mood,  hundreds  only 
accustomed  to  the  rough  life  of  the  frontier,  stormed  the 
mansion,  fighting,  scrambling,  elbowing,  scratching.  Waiters 
appearing  with  refreshments  were  rushed  by  the  uncouth 
guests,  resulting  in  the  crash  of  glass  and  china.  Men  in 
heavy  boots,  covered  with  the  mud  of  the  unpaved  streets, 
sprang  upon  the  chairs  and  sofas  to  get  a  better  view  of  the 


48    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

hero  of  the  hour.1  Women  fainted,  some  were  seen  with 
bloody  noses,  and  Jackson  was  saved  from  being  crushed 
only  by  the  action  of  some  gentlemen  in  making  a  barrier  of 
their  bodies.  After  this  the  old  soldier  beat  a  hasty  retreat 
through  the  back  way  to  the  south,  and  sought  relief  at 
Gadsby's.2  "I  never  saw  such  a  mixture,"  wrote  Justice 
Story.  "The  reign  of  King  Mob  seemed  triumphant."  And 
f  Mrs.  Smith  writing  of  her  experience  said:  "The  noisy  and 
1  disorderly  rabble  .  .  .  brought  to  my  mind  descriptions  I  have 
read  of  the  mobs  in  the  Tuileries  and  at  Versailles." 

And  on  the  day  that  Jackson  was  enjoying,  or  trembling 
at,  the  popularity  of  his  triumph,  where  was  Adams?  The  day 
before  the  inauguration  he  had  removed  to  the  home  of  Com 
modore  Porter  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city;  and  at  the  time 
the  surging  multitude  was  all  but  drowning  the  roar  of  the 
cannon  with  its  cries  for  Jackson,  the  dethroned  President, 
finding  the  day  "warm  and  springlike,"  had  ordered  his 
horse,  and,  accompanied  by  a  single  companion,  had  ridden 
into  the  city  "through  F  Street  to  the  Rockville  turnpike," 
and  over  that  until  he  reached  a  road  leading  to  the  Porters' 
—  reminded  of  the  passing  of  his  power  by  the  neglect  of  the 
people.3 

Henry  Clay  shut  himself  in  his  house  and  did  not  leave  it 
during  the  day  —  tormented  by  bitter  regrets. 

V 

ALMOST  immediately  Jackson  began  to  get  the  reaction  on 
his  Cabinet  and  his  policies.  The  disaffections  in  the  house 
of  his  friends,  which  were  to  cause  him  so  much  embarrass 
ment  during  the  first  two  years  of  his  Administration,  began 
to  appear  before  the  shouts  of  the  crowd  on  the  White  House 
lawn  had  died  away.  We  have  it  on  the  authority  of  the 

1  Wilson's  Washington,  the  Capital  City,  i,  231. 

*  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years,  295. 

*  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  4, 1829. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  49 

capital  gossips  of  the  day  that  when  McLean,  the  Postmaster- 
General,  who  had  betrayed  Adams,  heard  of  his  new  chief's 
plans  for  wholesale  dismissals  of  postmasters,  he  warned 
Jackson  that  in  his  proceedings  against  those  officials  who 
had  participated  in  politics  he  would  be  forced  to  include  in 
the  proscription  the  supporters  of  Jackson  as  well  as  those 
who  had  been  faithful  to  Adams;  that  Jackson,  for  a  moment 
nonplussed,  sat  puffing  at  his  pipe,  then  arose,  and,  after 
walking  up  and  down  the  room  several  times,  stopped 
abruptly  before  his  obstreperous  minister,  with  the  question: 
"Mr.  McLean,  will  you  accept  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  , 
Supreme  Court?"  —  and  that  McLean  instantly  accepted.1 
This  is  vouched  for  by  Nathan  Sargent,  who  says  that  on  the 
evening  of  the  interview  Lewis  Cass  told  him,  at  a  reception 
at  the  home  of  General  Porter,  that  McLean,  with  whom  he 
was  intimate,  had  just  described  the  interview  to  him.2  The 
civic  virtue  of  Mr.  McLean  has  been  explained  on  the  theory 
that  he  entertained  presidential  aspirations  and  did  not  care 
to  incur  the  displeasure  of  the  many  postmasters  who  were 
friendly  to  his  ambition.  However  that  may  be,  he  secured 
a  position  of  which  he  was  not  unworthy,  and  Jackson  prob 
ably  saved  himself  some  trouble  by  meeting  a  sudden  crisis 
in  a  truly  Jacksonian  way. 

It  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  during  the  brief  moments 
he  walked  the  floor  puffing  his  pipe,  he  determined  upon 
McLean's  successor.  One  week  before  his  inauguration,  he 
had  given  James  A.  Hamilton  a  list  of  applicants  for  office 
with  the  request  for  an  opinion  and  report,  and  among  these 
was  the  application  of  William  T.  Barry  of  Kentucky  for  a 
place  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  The  applications  had  been 
returned  to  him  with  the  recommendation  that  the  Ken- 
tuckian  be  appointed.  He  was  known  to  Jackson  as  an 
"organization  man."  It  was  probably  the  matter  of  a  mo- 

1  Perky' s  Reminiscences,  i,  98. 

1  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  165-66. 


50    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ment,  for  one  of  the  President's  quick  decision,  to  make  the 
exchange  —  McLean  for  the  Bench,  Barry  for  the  Cabinet.1 
His  efforts  to  soothe  the  injured  feelings  of  Senator  Tazewell, 
whose  heart  had  been  set  on  the  portfolio  of  State,  were  not 
so  successful.  After  the  disappointed  statesman  had  refused 
the  War  Department,  some  of  the  Jackson  tacticians  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  offering  him  the  mission  to  London,  and 
for  a  few  days  the  Virginian  seemed  tempted.  But  one  week 
after  the  inauguration,  he  wrote  the  President  that  domestic 
reasons  precluded  an  acceptance.  Keenly  disappointed  and 
concerned,  Jackson,  after  a  consultation  with  one  of  his  ad 
visers,2  wrote  a  personal  note  to  Tazewell  requesting  him 
to  call  at  the  White  House.  It  is  not  incomprehensible  that 
in  his  angry  mood  the  proud  Southerner  should  have  resented 
the  earnest  importunity  of  the  direct  Jackson,  and  he  left  the 
President  with  the  statement  to  McLean  that  he  had  not 
liked  the  General's  manner  in  looking  him  through  and 
through  and  telling  him  he  must  go.  He  had  looked  upon  it 
as  a  military  order,  and  considered  the  matter  at  rest.  This 
opened  the  way,  however,  for  the  recognition  of  Van  Buren's 
friend,  Louis  McLane,  whose  ruffled  feelings  were  smoothed 
by  the  appointment  to  the  English  Court.  But  within  a  week 
two  of  Jackson's  party  friends  and  supporters,  McLean  and 
Tazewell,  had  been  alienated  and  were  ripe  for  the  seduction 
of  the  Opposition. 

/  Meanwhile,  as  soon  as  Clay  could  recover  from  the  shock 
of  defeat,  he  began  the  organization  and  solidification  of  a 
bitter  and  stubborn  opposition  to  the  Administration.  As 
early  as  the  first  of  January  it  was  evident  that  "the  aim  of 
the  defeated  party  is  to  get  a  majority  in  the  Senate  and 
thereby  to  control  the  President." 3  During  the  first  few  weeks 

1  Hamilton,  in  his  Reminiscences,  p.  100,  tells  of  his  report  to  Jackson  on  Barry's 
application. 

2  Hamilton.  See  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  90-91. 

3  Mrs.  Smith  thus  writes  in  the  First  Forty  Years,  and  her  salon  was  the  center  of 
Whig  gossip. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  51 

of  the  new  Administration  the  iron  sank  deep  into  the  souls 
of  the  dispossessed  office-holders  and  their  friends.  It  was 
manifest  that  there  was  something  more  than  a  new  master 
in  the  White  House  —  that  a  regime  had  passed,  a  dynasty 
had  fallen.  Previous  Presidents  had  entered  office  with  the 
good  wishes  of  most  of  their  political  opponents,  but  it  was 
clear  from  the  beginning  that  the  dispossessed  had  steeled 
themselves  against  conciliation,  were  planning  to  find  fault 
on  general  principles,  and  to  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost 
to  wreck  the  Administration.  The  Cabinet  was  greeted  with 
derision  and  the  Whig  drawing-rooms  made  merry  over  the 
"millennium  of  the  minnows."  All  the  members  of  the  new 
official  family  were  ridiculed  with  the  exception  of  Van 
Buren  and  even  he,  while  conceded  to  be  a  "profound  poli 
tician,"  was  "not  supposed  to  be  an  able  statesman." 1  The 
vitriolic  and  vindictive  Adams,  nursing  his  wrath  to  keep  it 
warm,  poured  forth  on  the  pages  of  his  diary  vituperative 
denunciations  of  the  Cabinet,  together  with  the  gossip  of 
the  malicious.  Ten  days  of  the  new  regime,  and  he  had  ren 
dered  the  verdict  that  "the  only  principles  yet  discernible  in 
the  conduct  of  the  President"  were  "to  feed  the  cormorant 
appetite  for  place,  and  to  reward  the  prostitution  of  can 
vassing  defamers."  2 

While  Adams  indulged  in  these  unfriendly  reflections 
merely  to  feed  his  personal  vanity,  and  to  record  his  supe 
riority,  Clay,  equally  bitter,  was  not  content  to  shut  his 
reflection  up  between  the  covers  of  a  book.  To  him  defeat 
had  been  especially  bitter.  He  hated  Jackson  with  vindictive 
malice  because  the  latter  really  credited  the '"Jpargam  "Utory, 
and^  baoTsanctioned  its  circulation.  His  overpowering^pas- 
sion  was  to  reach  the  Presidency.  He  had  entered  the  offi 
cial  household  j)f  Adams  as  the  head  prthe^Cabinetwhen 
the  <rSecretariaJ  Succession"  se^med-dcfinitcJy--e^tablisEed, 
and  had  looked  forward  to  succeeding  his  chief  at  the  end  of 

1  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years.  2  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  14,  1829. 


52    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

his  second  Administration.  The  fact  that  there  had  been  no 
second  Administration  had  been  due,  in  part,  to  the  prevalent 
opinion  that  Clay  had  entered  into  a  bargain  for  power,  and 
he  faced  retirement  from  public  life  feeling  that  his  great 
opportunity  had  failed  him  and  that  his  reputation  had  been 
stained.  He  was  the  type  of  man  whose  bitterness  must  find 
relief  in  action.  From  the  moment  he  recovered  from  the 
shock  of  the  election,  he  dedicated  himself  to  the  pursuit  of 
Jackson. 

In  judging  of  the  sincerity  of  his  unrelenting  opposition 
during  the  next  eight  years,  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that 
before  Jackson  had  perfected  a  policy,  or  proclaimed  a  prin 
ciple,  Mr.  Clay  attended  a  banquet  given  in  his  honor  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  the  White  House,  at  which  he  assailed  the 
President  with  an  intemperance  of  denunciation  never  ex 
ceeded  in  later  years.  This  was  evidently  personal.  One 
week  after  the  inauguration  he  said  to  Mrs.  Bayard  Smith: 
"There  is  not  in  Cairo  or  in  Constantinople  a  greater  moral 
despotism  than  is  at  this  moment  exercised  over  public  opin 
ion  here.  Why,  a  man  dare  not  avow  what  he  thinks  or 
feels,  or  shake  hands  with  a  personal  friend,  if  he  happens  to 
differ  from  the  powers  that  be." 1  On  the  very  day  this  re 
markable  statement  was  recorded  by  the  chronicler  of  the 
Whig  drawing-rooms,  Adams  wrote  in  his  diary:  "Mr.  Clay 
told  me  some  time  since  that  he  had  received  invitations  at 
several  places  on  his  way  to  Lexington  to  public  dinners,  and 
should  attend  them,  and  that  he  intended  freely  to  express 
his  opinions."  2  A  little  later  Adams  notes  that  while  riding 
he  passed  Mr.  Clay  in  a  carriage  driving  toward  Baltimore 
on  his  way  to  Kentucky  —  pale,  stern,  and  sour.  On  that 
journey,  and  without  having  at  that  time  any  particular  ac 
tions  of  the  new  Administration  on  which  to  base  an  attack, 
he  spoke  wherever  the  opportunity  was  afforded,  and  always 
with  a  vehement  denunciation  of  President  Jackson. 

1  First  Forty  Years,  March  12.  18£9.  2  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  12,  1829. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  53 

The  inauguration  was  over;  the  people  from  afar,  having 
seen  "their"  President  and  visited  "their"  White  House, 
had  returned  to  their  homes;  and  Henry  Clay,  the  most 
consummate  of  politicians,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  men, 
was  already  meditating  upon  the  organized  assault  that  was 
to  be  made  upon  the  new  regime.  Now  let  us  acquaint  our 
selves  with  the  advisers  with  whom  the  President  had  sur 
rounded  himself  officially. 

X  .?_ 

^^DY  common  consent  the  Whig  aristocracy  conceded  that 
Martin  Van  Buren  was  the  strong  man  of  the  Cabinet  because 
of  an  uncanny  cleverness  as  a  politician,  while  denying  him 
the  qualities  of  statesmanship  or  intellectual  leadership. 
Even  as  a  politician  tradition  would  have  him  of  the  super 
ficial,  manipulating,  intriguing  sort.  History  had  generally 
accepted  this  tradition  until  Mr.  Shepard's  masterful  biog 
raphy  1  focused  attention  upon  his  career,  and  the  publica 
tion  of  his  fascinating  "Autobiography"  disclosed  his  in 
tellectuality.  He  stood  out  among  the  politicians  of  his  time, 

to  whom  historyRkas  been  kinder,  because  of  his  refusal  to 
i\ 

indulge  in  the  populap^ersonal  attacks  or  to  stoop  to  disrep 
utable  intrigues/A  man  of  even  temper,  blessed  with  a 
sense  of  humo^he  found  it  not  only  possible  but  profitable 
and  pleasurable  to  maintain  social  relations  with  political 
opponents,  and  all  that  the  embittered  Adams  could  see  in 
this  was  that  "  he  thought  it  might  one  day  be  to  his  interest 
to  seek  friendship."  In  senatorial  debates  he  had  discussed 
principles  and  policies  calmly,  instead  of  indulging  in  flam 
boyant  discourses  flaming  with  personalities  —  and  this  was 
accepted  in  his  day  as  evidence  that  he  held  his  principles 
lightly.  Adams  wrote  that  "his  principles  are  always  sub- 
^ordinate  to  his  ambition."  2 
\  This  "superficial  politician"  was  the  greatest  lawyer 

1  American  Statesmen  Series.  2  Adams's  Memoirs,  April  4,  1829. 


54    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

elected  to  the  Presidency  before  the  Civil  War,  and,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  the  second  Harrison,  the  greatest 
lawyer-President  we  have  had.  Living  in  a  community  over 
whelmingly  Federalistic,  this  "trimmer  without  principles" 
became  a  bitter  opponent  of  Federalism.  With  all  the  rich 
and  powerful  of  the  locality  allied  with  Federalism,  this 
"courtier"  entered  the  other  camp.  When  Burr  was  a  candi 
date  for  Governor,  with  the  support  of  Van  Buren's  preceptor 
in  the  law,  this  young  man,  who  "was  under  the  influence  of 
his  evil  genius,"  ardently  supported  the  Clinton-Livingston 
candidate,  who  was  elected.  When  he  entered  politics,  he 
found  the  spoils  system  thoroughly  established  in  New  York, 
and  political  proscription  practiced  by  both  parties,  but  that 
was  not  to  prevent  his  enemies  from  charging  him  with  its 
initiation.  He  did  not  quarrel  with  the  system.  He  used,  but 
never  abused  it.  And  in  the  days  of  his  limitation  to  State 
politics,  he  displayed  qualities  of  statesmanship,  patriotism, 
and  courage.  New  York  Federalism  did  not  dismiss  him  as 
a  mere  schemer  and  intriguer  when  he  led  his  party  in  the 
State  Senate.  He  met  the  Federalist  attack  upon  the  War 
of  1812  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  and  not  in  party  caucus. 
When  Federalism  fought  every  needful  measure,  he  became 
as  much  the  spokesman  of  the  war  party  in  Albany  as  Clay, 
Calhoun,  and  Grundy  in  Washington.  In  reaching  an  esti 
mate  of  Van  Buren,  it  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that  this 
alleged  man  of  indecision,  without  initiative  or  constructive 
capacity,  was  the  author  of  "  the  most  energetic  war  meas 
ure"  adopted  in  the  country.1  As  a  member  of  the  Constitu 
tional  Convention  of  New  York,  dealing  with  the  extension  of 
suffrage,  when  Chancellor  Kent,  giving  free  rein  to  his  aris 
tocratic  tendencies,  was  opposing  the  extension,  and  mere 
demagogues  were  advocating  the  immediate  letting  down  of 
the  bars  to  all,  it  is  significant,  both  of  his  Americanism  and 

1  Benton's  characterization  of  Van  Buren's  Classification  Bill;  Thirty  Years' 
View. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  55 

his  wisdom,  that  Van  Buren  scorned  both  the  role  of  reac 
tionary  and  demagogue,  and  proposed  the  plan  for  the  grad 
ual  extension  of  suffrage  in  a  speech  couched  in  the  language 
of  seasoned  statesmanship.  Thus,  at  the  time  he  entered 
National  life,  there  was  nothing  in  his  career  to  justify  the 
conventional  estimate  of  his  public  character. 

With  the  inauguration  of  Adams,  soon  after  he  had  entered 
the  United  States  Senate,  Van  Buren  became  the  recognized 
leader  of  the  Opposition,  and  he  set  himself  the  task  of  organ 
izing  and  militantizing  a  party  to  fight  the  Federalistic  trend 
of  the  President.  There  were  various  elements  on  which  he 
could  draw.  With  his  genius  for  organization  and  direction, 
he  made  it  his  work  to  seek  a  common  ground  upon  which 
all  could  stand  together  in  harmony.  He  fought  the  prin 
ciples  and  policies  of  the  Administration  in  dignified  fashion, 
without  recourse  to  scurrility;  but  he  capitalized  every  mis 
take  and  gave  it  fullest  publicity  through  the  circulation  of 
carefully  prepared  speeches,  after  the  fashion  of  the  present 
day.  Careful  to  discriminate,  even  in  his  attacks,  between 
personal  and  political  wrongdoing,  he  treated  Adams  with 
the  utmost  courtesy.  With  a  party  formed,  he  drilled  it  as 
carefully  as  was  ever  done  by  the  Albany  Regency.  He 
instilled  into  it  the  party  spirit.  He  mobilized  an  army. 
With  this  he  fought  the  Administration  on  the  floor. 

But  he  was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  to  take  the 
people  outside  the  halls  of  Congress  into  consideration.  To 
create  a  party  without  as  well  as  within  the  Congress,  he 
arranged  for  the  circulation  of  carefully  prepared  senatorial 
speeches  for  the  moulding  of  public  opinion  in  the  highways 
and  the  byways.  Thus  he  was  probably  responsible  for  the 
delivery  of  the  first  congressional  speeches  intended  solely 
for  campaign  use. 

In  person  he  was  slight,  erect,  and  scarcely  of  middle 
height.  His  intellectuality  was  indicated  by  his  high,  broad 
forehead,  and  his  bright,  quick  eye.  His  smile,  which  was 


56    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

habitual,  was  genial  and  seemed  sincere.  His  features,  gener 
ally,  were  pleasing.  His  manner  was  always  courtly,  and  he 
made  a  study  of  deportment.  No  professional  diplomat  of 
the  Old  World,  living  in  the  atmosphere  of  courts,  could  have 
been  more  polished.  Contemporaries  have  described  him  as 
"extraordinarily  bright  and  attractive,  but  without  anything 
supercilious."  1  In  social  life  he  was  a  favorite.  Few  men  of 
his  period  were  better  fitted  for  the  drawing-room.  An  enter 
taining  talker,  he  could  converse  intelligently  upon  a  multi 
tude  of  subjects  and  could  pass  from  a  political  conference 
with  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  to  a  social  call  on  Adams,  or  a  chat 
with  Clay,  without  effort  or  embarrassment.  Fond  of  femi 
nine  society,  he  could  be  as  charming  to  a  debutante  as  to  a 
grande  dame,  and  we  find  him  delighting  the  brilliant  Mrs. 
Livingston  with  his  intellectual  charm,  while  captivating  her 
daughter,  Cora,  with  his  juvenile  levity.  Fastidious  to  a  de 
gree,  he  could  enjoy  the  unconventional  moments  of  Jack 
son  in  his  shirt-sleeves  and  with  his  pipe,  and  make  the 
pleasure  mutual.  This  premier  of  an  Administration  that  con 
temporaries  of  the  Opposition  loved  to  describe  as  plebeian 
and  vulgar  "was  perhaps  as  polished  and  captivating  a  per 
son  as  the  social  circles  of  the  Republic  have  ever  known."  2 
As  we  shall  see,  nothing  ruffled  him.  He  never  forgot  his 
dignity  nor  lost  his  temper.  He  was  all  suavity.  He  was  all 
art. 

He  lives  in  history  as  a  politician  and  President  and  is 
never  thought  of  as  an  orator.  He  belonged  rather  to  the 
type  of  parliamentary  speaker  which  followed  the  scintillat 
ing  period  when  Pitt  declaimed  in  stately  sentences  and  Fox 
thundered  with  emotional  eloquence  —  the  conversational 
type  which  is  still  prevalent  at  Westminster.  He  made  no 
pretense  to  an  artful  literary  style,  but  his  speeches  were  in 
good  taste.  We  have  the  tradition  that  he  not  only  prepared 

1  Ellet's  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic,  149. 

2  Senator  Foote's  Casket  oj  Reminiscences,  59. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  57 

his  speeches  with  infinite  care,  which  is  probable,  but  that  he 
rehearsed  them  before  a  mirror,  which  is  debatable.  It  is 
said  that  on  his  retirement  from  the  Senate,  and  at  the  sale 
of  his  household  goods  at  auction,  "it  was  noticed  that  the 
carpet  before  the  large  looking-glass  was  worn  threadbare," 
and  that  "it  was  there  that  he  rehearsed  his  speeches."  1 
That  he  was  something  of  an  artist  and  an  actor  we  shall 
see  in  the  course  of  the  recital  of  the  events  of  the  Jackson 
Administration. 

^  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Ingham  was  a  Pennsylvania 
paper  manufacturer  who  possessed  little  learning  and  stood 
in  no  awe  of  genius.  His  career  had  been  that  of  a  petty  but 
persistent  plodder  who  knew  the  ways  of  cunning.  His  mind 
was  prosily  practical,  and  he  thought  solely  iri  terms  of  I 
money.  His  fourteen  years  in  Congress  had  been  barren  of 
achievement,  but  his  business  training  had  given  him  a  cer 
tain  advantage  over  more  brilliant  men  in  the  work  of  the 
committees.  He  was  the  forerunner  of  the  machine  politician 
of  a  later  day,  skillful  in  intrigue,  unscrupulous  in  methods, 
and  resourceful  in  the  work  of  organization.  His  general 
character  is  not  easily  deduced  from  the  conflicting  opinions 
of  his  contemporaries.  One  of  these,  unfriendly  to  the  Jack 
son  regime,  wrote  that  he  "is  a  good  man  of  unimpeachable 
and  unbending  integrity";  2  while  Adams,  after  relating  an 
incident  tending  to  an  opposite  conclusion,  tells  us  that 
"there  is  a  portrait  of  Ingham  in  Caracci's  picture  of  the 
Lord's  Supper"  —  which  is  the  nearest  approach  to  a  descrip 
tion  of  his  appearance  that  can  be  found.  There  is  a  general 
agreement,  however,  as  to  the  inferiority  of  his  talents,  and 
in  our  political  history  he  is  scarcely  the  shadow  of  a  sil 
houette. 

Quite  a  different  character  was  Secretary  of  War  Eaton, 
a  gentleman  of  education,  polish,  amiability,  capacity,  and 
wealth.  The  possession  of  a  fortune  deprived  him  of  an  in- 

1  Parley's  Reminiscences,  i,  65.  2  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years. 


58    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

centive  to  the  full  exertion  of  his  talents,  and  he  frankly  pre 
ferred  leisure  to  labor,  discouraged  the  approach  of  clients, 
and  liked  nothing  better  than  a  quiet  corner  of  his  library  at 
his  country  home  near  Nashville.  There  was  nothing  in  his 
appearance,  his  manner,  or  conversation  remotely  to  suggest 
the  frontiersman,  and,  on  the  contrary,  observers  were  im 
pressed  by  his  dignity  and  poise,  his  courtliness  and  courtesy. 
Even  in  the  bitter  days  when  society  was  in  league  against 
his  wife,  we  find  one  of  her  harshest  critics  writing  that 
"every  one  that  knows  esteems,  and  many  love  him  for  his 
benevolence  and  amiability." 1  He  possessed  many  advan 
tages  for  a  political  career.  Having  the  time  and  money  to 
devote  to  politics,  he  early  developed  a  genius  for  organiza 
tion,  and  an  uncanny  capacity  for  intrigue.  The  campaign 
of  1828  found  him  entrusted  with  much  of  the  important 
work  —  the  delicate  missions.  Wherever  Jackson  lacked  or 
needed  an  organization,  or  one  in  existence  required  stiffening, 
there  went  Eaton,  doing  his  work  furtively,  and  on  the  sur 
face  nothing  but  its  achievement  indicated  that  it  had  been 
undertaken.2  It  was  his  fine  Italian  hand  which  wrought  such 
havoc  with  Clay's  forces  in  Kentucky.  When  that  State 
began  to  waver  as  to  Clay,  Jackson  determined  to  force  the 
fighting  in  a  territory  at  first  thought  hopelessly  lost  to  the 
Democracy.  Even  Benton  found  his  way  to  the  "dark  and 
bloody  ground,"  but  tradition  has  it  that  it  was  the  suave 
and  furtive  Eaton,  who  appeared  in  different  parts  of  Ken 
tucky,  making  no  speeches,  and  half  concealing  himself  in  a 
mantle  of  mystery,  who  divorced  from  Clay  so  many  of  his 
supporters.  There  is  a  sinister  aspect  to  the  general  descrip 
tion  of  his  activities;  and  his  enemies,  and  Jackson's,  always 
insisted  that  he  had  parceled  out  jobs  with  a  lavish  hand.  A 
man  of  culture,  a  soldier  of  acknowledged  gallantry,  a  lawyer 
of  ability,  he  was  destined  to  an  unhappy  notoriety,  but  he 
deserved  a  better  fate. 

1  First  Forty  Years,  Feb.  25,  1829.  2  Buell's  Life  of  Jackson. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  59 

The  patrician  of  the  Administration  was  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  Branch,  who,  like  Eaton ,  had  inherited  an  ample  for 
tune,  and  had  divided  his  time  between  politics,  the  practice 
of  the  law,  and  the  management  of  a  large  plantation.  At  the 
time  he  entered  the  Cabinet,  he  had  distinguished  himself  in 
the  politics  of  North  Carolina,  had  served  three  terms  as 
Governor,  and  was  a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate  — 
scarcely  the  record  of  an  obscure  man.  As  chief  executive  of 
his  State,  his  record  had  been  far  from  that  of  a  colorless 
time-serving  politician  without  constructive  qualities  or 
vision.  If  his  messages  were  couched  in  the  lofty,  pompous 
phrases  of  the  period,  they  were  uot  without  substance.  He 
was  a  pioneer  in  the  field  of  popular  education,  the  leader  of 
a  crusade  against  capital  punishment  for  many  crimes,  an 
advocate  of  the  substitution  of  imprisonment  for  the  death 
penalty,  and  he  urged  the  establishment  of  a  penitentiary 
based  on  the  idea  of  reformation.  A  man  of  great  wealth,  and 
an  aristocrat  by  temperament,  he  led  a  fight  against  impris 
onment  for  debt.1  His,  too,  is  the  distinction  of  having  in 
that  early  day  proposed  the  strict  regulation  of  the  medical 
profession  as  a  protection  of  the  public  against  impostors. 
A  planter,  and  the  owner  of  many  slaves,  he  insisted,  while 
Governor,  on  the  protection  of  the  legal  rights  of  the  blacks; 
and  the  petition  of  the  entire  population  of  Raleigh,  the  im 
portunities  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  young  women,  the  plea 
of  State  officials,  were  not  sufficient  to  persuade  him  to  save 
from  the  gallows  a  young  white  man  who  had  murdered  a 
slave.2  In  the  Senate,  while  not  distinguished  as  an  orator,  he 
was  considered  a  strong  debater  and  was  respected  as  a  man 
of  courage  and  deep  convictions. 

The  portrait  of  Branch,  which  hangs  in  the  Navy  Depart 
ment  in  Washington,  suggests,  in  the  slender  profile  and 

1  His  message  of  1819,  found  in  Haywood's  brochure  on  Branch,  deals  with  the 
strangely  barbarous  custom  of  the  times  of  lopping  off  the  ears  of  perjurers. 
*  Haywood  relates  this  incident  in  his  brochure. 


60    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

luminous  eyes,  the  poet,  rather  than  the  politician.  He  is 
described  by  one  who  saw  him  often  in  his  Washington  days 
as  "tall,  well-proportioned,  graceful  in  gestures,  and  affable 
and  kindly  in  manner."  1  He  had  the  graciousness  of  the 
Southern  aristocrat  of  the  old  school,  and  was  devoted  to  the 
social  standards  and  customs  of  his  section.  Strongly  at 
tached  to  his  home  and  family,  having  the  poet's  love  of  the 
artistic,  he  surrounded  himself  with  beauty,  and  his  home  at 
Enfield  was  a  comfortable  and  stately  mansion  surrounded 
by  a  smooth  lawn,  in  the  midst  of  gardens,  orchards,  and 
shade  trees.  His  political  career  and  the  course  of  the  Jack 
son  Administration  were  to  be  greatly  influenced  by  his  de 
votion  to  his  wife  and  daughters,  and  to  his  social  ideals. 

In  John  McPherson  Berrien,  the  Attorney-General,  we  have 
a  character  with  whom  history  has  played  strange  pranks. 
When  he  entered  the  Cabinet,  he  was  conceded  to  be  one  of 
the  most  polished  orators  of  his  time  and  one  of  the  famous 
lawyers  of  the  South.  His  Washington  debut  in  the  Supreme 
Court,  in  a  case  involving  the  seizure  of  an  African  slave  ship, 
had  been  a  spectacular  triumph.2  All  contemporaries  agree 
as  to  his  extraordinary  gifts  of  eloquence.  Perley  Poore 
describes  him  as  "a  polished  and  effective  orator."  3  Another 
contemporary  found  him  "a  model  for  chaste,  free,  beautiful 
elocution."  4  Still  another  has  it  that  "he  spoke  the  court 
language  of  the  Augustan  age."  6  Even  the  blase  John  Mar 
shall,  who  listened  to  Webster  and  Choate,  was  so  impressed 
that  he  dubbed  him  "the  honey-tongued  Georgian  youth."  6 
He  had  been  in  the  Senate  three  years  when  a  speech  upon 
the  tariff  impelled  the  press  of  the  period  to  describe  him  as 
"  the  American  Cicero "  —  a  designation  that  clung  to  him 

1  Ellet's  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic,  155. 

2  Senator  Foote  describes  it,  in  his  Casket  of  Reminiscences,  p.  14. 

3  Perley 's  Reminiscences. 

4  Sketches  of  Public  Characters.    New  York,  1830. 

6  Lucian  Lamar  Knight,  Reminiscences  of  Famous  Georgians. 
6  Northern's  Men  of  Mark  in  Georgia. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES  61 

through  life.  The  greatest  speech  made  by  any  of  the  leaders 
jof  the  Opposition  on  the  Panama  Mission  was  the  constitu 
tional  argument  of  Berrien.1  As  a  man  he  was  cold  and  re 
served,  an  aristocrat  in  manner,  as  in  feeling.  He  made  a 
virtue  of  not  cultivating  the  multitude,  scorned  all  compro 
mise  with  his  convictions,  firmly  believed  in  himself,  and  was 
not  at  all  impressed  with  opposition.  Utterly  without  tact  or 
diplomacy,  caustic  and  sarcastic,  he  incurred  bitter  enmi 
ties,  but  his  admirers,  who  liked  to  compare  him  with  Cicero, 
took  pride  in  this  weakness.2  As  a  political  leader,  he  was 
dictatorial  and  demanded  obedience  without  question.  The 
slightest  hesitation  on  the  part  of  his  tried  and  truest  friends 
was  usually  followed  by  coldness  on  his  part.  Selfish  to  a 
degree,  he  was  always  keen  for  his  personal  advancement.3 
Few  more  brilliant  men  have  ever  been  Attorney-General  of 
the  United  States. 

If  Postmaster-General  Barry  was  unknown  to  Washington, 
it  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  him.  In  politics  he  was  an 
exotic.  Entering  Congress  as  a  young  man,  he  could  have 
remained  indefinitely,  but  congressional  life  did  not  allure 
him.  For  twenty  years  he  had  been  an  influential  State  politi 
cian,  serving  in  the  legislature  until  sent  to  the  United  States 
Senate  to  fill  an  unexpired  term.  It  is  an  interesting  com 
mentary  on  his  preference  for  State  office  that  he  resigned 
from  the  Senate,  where  he  might  have  remained,  to  become 
Chief  Justice  of  the  State  Supreme  Court.  Living  in  Lexing 
ton  as  a  neighbor  of  Henry  Clay,  he  had  been  for  many  years 
one  of  the  great  leader's  most  ardent  supporters,  and  it  is 
significant  of  the  character  of  the  man  that,  while  he  sup 
ported  Clay  against  Jackson  in  1824,  the  "bargain"  story 
transformed  him  into  a  bitter  foe. 

In  view  of  their  relations  to  the  Jackson  Administration 

1  This  speech  was  incorporated  in  the  4th  volume  of  Elliot's  Debates  as  an  exposi 
tion  of  the  Constitution. 

1  Knight's  Reminiscences.  8  Miller's  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia. 


62    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

years  later,  the  estimate  of  Barry  reached  by  Amos  Kendall 
in  1814,  and  recorded  in  his  "Autobiography,"  is  interesting, 
and  serves  to  account  for  the  feeling,  scarcely  concealed,  with 
which  the  journalist-politician  afterwards  undertook  the 
unraveling  of  the  difficulties  into  which  Barry  had  plunged 
the  Post-Office  Department.  It  was  when  Kendall  was  on 
his  way  to  Kentucky  that  he  first  met  the  Lexington  politi 
cian  and  went  down  the  Ohio  River  with  him  and  Mrs.  Barry 
with  "servants,  horses,  and  carriages,"  in  a  boat  thirty  feet 
long,  with  three  apartments.  At  the  end  of  the  journey  Ken 
dall  wrote:  "He  appears  to  be  a  very  good  man  but  not  a 
great  man.  For  our  passage  he  charged  nothing,  and  in  every 
way  treated  me  like  a  gentleman.  His  lady  seems  to  be  a 
woman  of  good  disposition,  but  uneducated."  In  contradic 
tion  to  this  estimate,  we  have  another  in  which  he  is  described 
as  possessing  extraordinary  abilities,  active  business  habits, 
an  exact  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  and  as  being  "a  great 
orator."1  And  this  same  authority  describes  Mrs.  Barry 
as  "frank,  lady-like,  free  from  affectations,  possessing  a  fine 
person  and  agreeable  manners."  Parton  tells  us  that  he  was 
"agreeable  and  amiable,  but  not  a  business  man"  -  which 
is  the  final  verdict  of  history.  In  person  he  was  above  the 
medium  height,  but  slender  and  thin  in  face.  He  was  modest 
in  demeanor,  and  energetic  —  even  though  he  did  not  always 
properly  direct  his  energy  —  and  fond  of  society.  He  became 
Postmaster-General  because,  according  to  the  Jackson  stand 
ard,  he  had  richly  earned  the  reward. 

Such  was  the  Jackson  Cabinet  which  accompanied  him 
into  office.  There  have  been  greater  Cabinets,  but  many 
inferior  to  it,  and  few  with  men  possessing  greater  ability 
than  Van  Buren  or  Berrien,  or  more  social  distinction  than 
Branch.  There  was  not  a  single  member  who  did  not  possess 
at  least  good  ability,  and  Jackson  had,  or  thought  he  had, 
what  he  said  he  proposed  to  have,  a  Cabinet  without  a  pres- 

1  Ellet's  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic,  148. 


THE  RISING  OF  THE  MASSES 


63 


idential  aspirant.  It  is  strange  that  the  one  man  who  devel 
oped  into  a  candidate  almost  immediately  was  the  one  to 
whom  he  became  most  ardently  attached. 

We  shall  now  note  the  first  troubles  of  the  official  family. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE 
I 

THIRTEEN  days  after  the  inauguration,  the  Senate,  having 
confirmed  the  Cabinet,  adjourned,  and  the  Administration 
could  look  forward  to  almost  nine  months  of  non-interference 
from  the  Congress.  The  pre-inaugural  prediction  that  the 
President  would  adopt  a  policy  of  proscriptioiyj|Jiis  political 
foes  was  almost  immediately  justified  by  evenjgyThe  "  spoils 
system,"  as  an  important  cog  injthe  machinery  of  politi 
cal  parties,  thus  trankly  recognizedT^ates  irojjTlthis  time. 
Through  aflthe  intervening  years  the  civil  service  reformers 
have  indulged  in  the  most  bitter  denunciation  of  Jackson  on 
the  untenable  theory  that  but  for  him  public  offices  would 
never  have  been  used  as  the  spoils  of  party.  Some  of  the 
most  conscientious  of  historians  have  created  the  impression 
that  the  adoption  of  a  prescriptive  policy  was  due  to  some 
thing  inherently  wrong  in  the  President.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
Jackson  was  the  victim  of  conditions  and  circumstances,  and 
the  new  political  weapon  grew  out  of  the  exigencies  of  a  new 
political  era/7 

For  many  years  political  parties  had  been  chaotic,  vapory, 
and  indefinite;  and  if  the  politics  of  the  young  Republic  had 
not  been  drifting  toward  personal  government,  it  had  been 
partaking  of  the  nature  of  government  by  cliques  and  classes. 
The  first  Message  of  John  Quincy  Adams  had  made  the  def 
inite  division  of  the  people  into  political  parties  inevitable  — 
these  parties  standing  for  well-defined,  antagonistic  policies. 
Van  Buren  had  early  caught  the  drift  and  had  cleverly  or 
ganized  a  party  standing  for  principles  and  policies,  rather 
than  for  personalities.  John  M.  Clayton,  soon  to  become  one 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        65 

of  the  outstanding  figures  of  the  Opposition  to  the  Jackson 
Administration,  who  had  seldom  voted  even  in  presidential 
elections  because  of  his  indifference  to  the  mere  ambitions  of 
individuals,  understood  that  in  1828  something  more  was 
involved,  and  threw  himself  into  the  contest  in  support  of 
Adams.  And  Clay  was  even  then  looking  forward  to  the 
organization  of  a  party  pledged  to  internal  improvements  and 
rotective  tariff. 

e  Jackson  Administration  marks  the  beginning  of  po^ 
litical  parties  as  we  have  known  them  for  almost  a  century.  J[ 

It  was  in  this  compaign,  too,  that  the  masses  awakened 
to  the  fact  that  they  had  interests  involved,  and  ^aosseased 
power.  Previous  to  this  the  aristocracy,  the  business  and 
financial  interests,  and  the  intellectuals,  alone,  determined 
the  governmental  personnel.  Men  went  into  training  for  the 
Presidency,  and,  as  in  a  lodge,  passed,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
from  the  Cabinet  to  the  Vice-Presidency,  and  thence  to  the 
chief  magistracy.  An  office-holding  class,  feeling  itself  secure 
in  a  life  tenure,  had  grown  up. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  election  of  Jackson  was  due  to  the 
rising  of  the  masses.  Thousands  who  had  never  before  par 
ticipated  in  politics  played  influential  parts  in  the  campaign. 
The  victory,  they  considered  theirs.  Thus  they  had  flocked 
to  Washington  as  never  before  to  an  inauguration,  rejoicing 
in  the  induction  of  "their"  President  into  office,  and  all  too 
many  pressing  claims  to  recognition  and  entertaining  hopes 
of  entering  upon  their  reward.  Before  the  inauguration,  the 
grim  old  warrior,  awaiting  the.  opportunity,  at  Gadsby's,  to 
take  the  oath  of  office,  ha^l  been  fairly  mobbed  by  ardent 
partisans  of  his  cause,  demanding  the  expulsion  of  the  enemy 
and  the  appointment  of  his  supporters  to  office.  The 
Jackson  press  had  been  particularly  insistent  upon  this 
point.  Duff  Green,  of  the  "National  Telegraph,"  had  early 
announced  that  he  naturally  assumed  that  the  office-holders 
who  had  actively  campaigned  for  Adams  would  make  way 


66    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

for  the  victors.  This  same  feeling  had  spread  into  every  com 
munity  in  the  country.  Isaac  Hill,  writing  in  the  "New 
Hampshire  Patriot"  immediately  after  the  election,  had 
sounded  the  onslaught  for  the  Democracy  of  New  England.1 
And  soon  after  reaching  Washington,  and  sensing  the  atmos 
phere  at  Gadsby 's,  the  New  England  editor  had  written  joy 
ously  to  a  friend:  "You  may  say  to  all  our  anxious  Adams- 
ites  that  THE  BARNACLES  WILL  BE  SCRAPED  CLEAN  OFF  THE 
SHIP  OF  STATE.  Most  of  them  have  grown  so  large  arid 
stick  so  tight  that  the  scraping  process  will  doubtless  be 
fatal  to  them." 

Before  Jackson's  entry  into  the  White  House,  the  scenes 
in  and  about  Gadsby 's  were  scarcely  less  than  scandal 
ous.  A  great  perspiring  mob  swarmed  in  the  streets  in  front, 
crowded  the  tap-room,  jostled  its  way  in  the  halls,  and,  not 
withstanding  the  efforts  of  Major  Lewis,  it  demanded  and 
secured  admission  to  the  President's  private  apartment. 
All  admitted  themselves  responsible  for  Jackson's  election. 
Amos  Kendall,  encountering  a  pompous  stranger  on  the 
Avenue,  was  invited  to  look  upon  the  man  who  had  "de 
livered  Pennsylvania." 2  James  A.  Hamilton,  who  was  close 
to  Jackson  in  the  early  days  of  the  Administration,  was 
importuned  by  an  Indianian,  who  had  taken  the  electoral 
vote  of  the  State  to  the  Capitol,  to  intercede  on  his  behalf  for 
the  Register's  office  at  Crawfordsville,  or  the  Marshalship. 
This  typical  office-seeker  had  "calculated  to  remain  a  few 
weeks  .  .  .  hoping  that  some  of  these  violent  Adams  men 
may  receive  their  walking  papers."  He  carried  letters  of 
recommendation  from  all  the  Democratic  members  of  the 

"  Every  State  in  New  England  is  now  ruled  by  the  same  aristocracy  that  ruled 
in  1798  —  that  ruled  during  the  late  war.  ...  A  band  of  New  England  Democrats 
have  encountered  the  dominant  party  at  vast  odds  —  they  have  suffered  every 
species  of  persecution  and  contumely.  Shall  these  men  not  be  protected  by  the  Ad 
ministration  of  the  people  under  General  Jackson?  If  that  Administration  fail  to  ex 
tend  this  protection,  then  indeed  it  will  fail  of  one  of  the  principal  objects  for  which 
the  people  placed  them  in  power  by  at  least  two  to  one  of  the  votes  of  the  Union." 
2  Kendall's  Autobiography,  307. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        67 

State  Legislature  "for  any  office  I  can  ask."  But,  in  view 
of  the  brisk  competition,  would  not  Hamilton  kindly  recall 
that  he  had  received  letters  from  the  Hoosier  bearing  on  the 
campaign,  and  personally  testify  to  the  important  part  he 
had  played?  l  Others  depended  upon  the  length  of  their 
petitions,  and  two  applicants  from  Pennsylvania,  for  the  same 
office,  had  signers  so  numerous  that  the  number  had  to  be 
spnated  by  the  length  of  the  sheets.2 

[eanwhile  there  is  no  question  but  that  Jackson  was 
"eager  to  serve  his  friends,  if  not  to  punish  his  enemies.  From 
the  moment  of  his  election,  he  had  entertained  no  illusions 
as  to  the  character  of  the  opposition  his  Administration 
would  encounter.  It  was  an  open  secret  that  his  enemies,  long 
before  the  inauguration,  had  begun  to  organize  for  the  dis 
crediting  of  his  Administration.  He  was  familiar  with  the  \A 
terness  of  Clay.    And,  with  the  determination  to  make  his 
Administration  a  success,  from  his  point  of  view,  he  turned 
his  attention  to  preparations  for  the  fight.    His  military 
training  told  him  that  it  was  fatal  to  enter  a  campaign  with 
traitors  in  the  camp  I  The  disloyalty  from  which  Adams  had 
suffered  had  not  been  lost  upon  him.3  And  he  had  fixed  con 
victions  as  to  political  organization.   "To  give  effect  to  any    • 
principles,"  he  said,  "you  must  avail  yourself  of  the  physical 
force  of  an  organized  body  of  men.  This  is  true  alike  in  war, 
politics,  or  religion.    You  cannot  organize  men  in  effective 
bodies  without  giving  them  a  reason  for  it.   And  when  the 
organization  is  once  made,  you  Cannot  keep  it  together  unless 
you  holdgbonstantly  before  its*  members  why  they  are  or-  \  \ 
ganized.\£/irhus  party  politics,  in  the  modern  sense,  began  J 
with  Jackson,  and  the  spoils  system  grew  out  of  the  exigen- 1 
cies  of  party  politics  j   Vicious  though  it  may  be,  it  is  signifi-/ 
cant  of  its  appeal  to  the  rank  and  file  of  party  workers,  upon 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  98. 

2  Ibid.  3  Adams  turned  out  but  five. 

4  Quoted  by  Francis  P.  Blair  to  Buell,  author  of  the  Life  oj  Jackson. 


68    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

whom  party  success  depends,  that  politicians  of  all  parties, 
including  Lincoln,  have  adopted  it  without  shame. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Jackson  was  greatly  influenced 
in  his  course  by  his  advisers,  of  either  his  constitutional  or 
Kitchen  Cabinet.  Van  Buren,  who  has  been  wrongfully  ac 
cused  of  so  many  things,  and  among  others,  of  having  been 
the  dominating  influence  as  to  the  spoils  system,  heard  of  the 
plan  for  sweeping  changes  with  grave  misgivings.  "If  the 
General  makes  one  removal  at  this  time,"  he  said  in  a  letter 
to  Hamilton  written  from  Albany,  "he  must  go  on.  So  far 
as  depends  on  me,  my  course  would  be  to  restore  by  a  single 
order  every  one  who  has  been  turned  out  by  Mr.  Clay  for 
political  reasons,  unless  circumstances  of  a  personal  character 
have  since  arisen  to  make  the  appointment  in  any  case  im 
proper.  To  ascertain  that  will  take  a  little  time.  There  I 
would  pause."  This,  from  the  head  of  his  official  family. 

And  the  most  intimate  of  his  advisers,  of  the  Kitchen 
Cabinet,  Major  Lewis,  is  reported  to  have  written  to  the 
President:  "In  relation  to  the  principle  of  rotation  in  office, 
I  embrace  this  occasion  to  enter  my  solemn  protest  against 
it;  not  on  account  of  my  office,  but  because  I  hold  it  to  be 
fraught  with  the  greatest  mischief  to  the  country.  If  ever  it 
should  be  carried  out  in  extenso,  the  days  of  this  Republic 
will,  in  my  opinion,  be  numbered;  for  whenever  the  impres 
sion  shall  become  general  that  the  Government  is  only  valu 
able  on  account  of  its  offices,  the  great  and  paramount  inter 
ests  of  the  country  will  be  IdSrtight  of,  and  the  Government 
itself  ultimately  destroy  ed.v^Tmth  the  possible  exception  of 
Eaton,  who  was  a  practical  politician  in  the  modern  sense, 
and  Van  Buren,  to  the  extent  just  indicated,  none  of  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  were  spoilsmen! at  heart;  and  Amos 
KendalL  the  genius  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  would  unques- 
X^tiona^Iy  have  preferred  to  be  spared  the  pain  of  turning  men 
%^j  out  of  office.  To  be  sure,  the  jovial  but  vindictive  Duff 

Green,  who  spent  much  time  at  the  elbow  of  Jackson  in  the 
t 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE   69 

early  months  of  the  Administration,  was  insistent  upon  the 
punishment  of  enemies,  but  the  responsibility  for  the  adop 
tion  of  the  policy  rests  upon  the  President  himself. 

And  the  result  was  that  the  spring  and  summer  months  of 
1829  were  filled  with  the  clamor  of  importunate  pleas,  not 
unmixed  with  threats  and  curses,  from  the  office-seekers.  In 
many  instances  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  applicants 
fluttered  down  upon  Washington  to  reenforce  the  husband 
and  the  father.1  One  of  the  General's  most  ardent  supporters 
left  the  capital  two  days  after  the  inauguration  bitterly  de 
nouncing  him  for  his  failure  to  appoint  the  irate  one  to  a 
position  not  then  vacant.2  Cabinet  officers  were  harassed, 
bombarded,  followed  from  their  offices  to  their  homes  and 
back  again,  until  several  of  them  confessed  that  life  had 
become  a  burden,  and  they  were  forced  to  close  their  doors 
to  applicants  until  a  late  hour  in  the  afternoon  to  find  time 
for  the  transaction  of  public  business.3  Such  aspirants  as 
were  not  upon  the  ground  in  person  were  either  represented 
by  friends  who  were,  or  they  peppered  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet  with  letterfe.  One  peculiarly  offensive  candidate  for 
the  collectorship  of  customs  in  New  York  wrote  to  an  equally 
disreputable  friend:  "No  damn  rascal  who  made  use  of  an 
office  or  its  profits  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  Mr.  Adams  in 
and  General  Jackson  out  of  power  is  entitled  to  the  least 
leniency  save  that  of  hanging.  Whether  or  not  I  shall  get 
anything  in  the  general  scramble  for  plunder  remains  to  be 
seen,  but  I  rather  guess  I  shall.  I  know  Mr.  Ingham  slightly, 
and  would  recommend  that  you  push  like  the  devil  if  you 
expect  anything  from  that  quarter."  4  And  in  the  letter 
from  Ingham  to  the  seeker  of  "plunder"  we  have  abundant 
evidence  that  the  advice  was  accepted:  "These  [his  duties] 
cannot  be  postponed;  and  I  do  assure  you  that  I  am  com- 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  98. 

2  McMaster's  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States. 

3  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  98. 

4  Samuel  Swartwout  to  Jesse  Hoyt,  in  Mackenzie's  Life  of  Van  Buren. 


70    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

pelled  daily  to  file  away  long  lists  of  recommendations,  etc., 
without  reading  them,  although  I  work  eighteen  hours  out 
of  the  twenty-four  with  all  diligence.  The  appointments  can 
be  postponed;  other  matters  cannot;  and  it  was  one  of  the 
prominent  errors  of  the  late  Administration  that  they  suf 
fered  many  important  public  interests  to  be  neglected,  while 
they  were  cruising  about  to  secure  or  buy  up  partisans.  This 
we  must  not  do."  1  The  same  man,  having  written  an  in 
solent  letter  to  Van  Buren,  was  sharply  rebuked  by  him. 
"Here  I  am,"  wrote  the  Secretary  of  State,  "engaged  in  the 
most  intricate  and  important  affairs,  which  are  new  to  me, 
and  upon  the  successful  conduct  of  which  my  reputation 
as  well  as  the  interests  of  the  country  depend,  and  which 
keep  me  occupied  from  early  in  the  morning  until  late  at  night. 
And  can  you  think  it  kind  or  just  to  harass  me  under  such 
circumstances  with  letters  which  no  man  of  common  sensi 
bility  can  read  without  pain?  ...  I  must  be  plain  with 
you.  .  .  .  The  terms  upon  which  you  have  seen  fit  to  place 
our  intercourse  are  inadmissible."  2 

Nor  was  this  clamor  for  office  confined  to  the  more  im 
portant  positions  —  it  reached  down  to  the  most  menial 
places,  to  those  of  the  gardener,  the  janitor,  and  messenger. 
Worse  still  —  men  in  position  to  serve  were  even  appealed  to 
for  place  by  members  of  their  immediate  families.  Thus  we 
find  Amos  Kendall  writing  to  his  wife:  "I  had  thought  before 
of  trying  to  get  some  place  for  your  father,  but  I  cannot  do 
anything  until  I  am  myself  appointed.  I  hope  in  a  year  or 
two,  and  perhaps  sooner,  to  find  some  situation  that  will 
enable  him  to  live  near  us,  and  comfortably."  3 

Meanwhile  the  clerks  in  Washington  lived  in  a  state  of 
terror.  Men  who  had  long  worked  in  harmony,  and  on  terms 
of  intimacy,  were  afraid  to  talk  to  one  another.  Every  one 

1  Ingham  to  Jesse  Hoyt,  Shepard's  Life  of  Van  Buren,  210-11. 

2  Shepard's  Life  of  Van  Buren,  210. 

*  Amos  Kendall's  Autobiography,  286. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE    71 

suddenly  assumed  the  aspect  of  a  spy  and  an  informer.  "AU 
the  subordinate  officers  of  the  Government,  and  even  the 
clerks  are  full  of  tremblings  and  anxiety,"  wrote  one  woman 
to  a  correspondent.  "To  add  to  this  general  gloom,  we  have 
horrible  weather,  snowstorm  after  snowstorm,  the  river 
frozen  up  and  the  poor  suffering."  1  The  majority  of  the 
subordinates  and  clerks,  many  the  ne'er-do-wells  of  distin 
guished  families,  assuming  that  they  were  assured  of  a  life 
position,  had  lived  up  to,  and  beyond,  their  meager  incomes, 
and  suddenly  found  themselves  unfit  for  other  employment 
and  confronted  with  dismissal.2  And  slowly,  but  surely,  the 
dismissals  came,  leaving  many  in  desperate  straits,  without 
sufficient  funds  to  reach  their  homes,  and  unfit  to  earn  a 
livelihood  if  they  did.  Some  were  driven  to  desperation.  One 
dismissed  employee  of  the  Custom  House  in  Boston  went 
"in  a  transport  of  grief"  to  Ingham  with  a  plea  to  be  in 
formed  of  the  cause  of  his  dismissal,  only  to  be  told  that 
offices  were  not  hereditary.3  One  clerk  in  the  War  Depart 
ment  cut  his  throat  from  ear  to  ear;  another  in  the  State 
Department  went  stark  mad.  But  all  appeals  for  sympathy 
were  met  by  the  proscriptionists  with  the  stern  reminder: 
"  The  exclusive  party  who  were  never  known  to  tolerate  any 
political  opponent  raise  and  reiterate  the  cry  of  persecution 
and  proscription  at  every  removal  that  takes  place.  They 
have  provoked  retaliation  by  the  most  profligate  and  aban 
doned  course  of  electioneering;  the  most  unheard-of  calumny 
arid  abuse  was  heaped  upon  the  candidate  of  the  people;  he 
was  called  by  every  epithet  that  could  designate  crime,  and 
the  amiable  partner  of  his  bosom  was  dragged  before  the 
people  as  worse  than  a  convicted  felon.  What  sympathy  do 
men  of  such  a  party  deserve  when  complaining  that  the 
places  which  they  have  abused  are  given  to  others?"  4 

1  First  Forty  Years,  283. 

2  Amos  Kendall  in  a  letter  to  his  wife  describes  the  extravagant  lives  of  these 
clerks.  Autobiography,  278.  s  Schouler's  History  of  the  United  States,  457. 

4  Isaac  Hill,  quoted  in  Cyrus  Bradley's  Life  of  Hill. 


72    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

A  dark  picture  —  and  yet  only  darker  than  similar  pic 
tures  in  years  to  follow  because,  in  1829,  the  policy  was  new 
and  caught  the  office-holders  unprepared.  So  gloomy  has  the 
picture  been  painted  that  the  student  of  the  times  is  prepared 
to  learn  of  a  general  massacre  of  the  placemen.  There  was 
no  such  massacre  —  no  such  massacre  as  followed  the  elec 
tion  of  Lincoln.! One  is  prepared  to  hear  that  all  the  enemies 
of  Jackson  were  driven  from  office,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  majority  of  the  Federal  office-holders  during  his  regime 
were  unmolested,  j  This  could  not  be  said  of  Roosevelt's  Ad 
ministration,  nor  of  Cleveland's.  The  exact  number  of  re 
movals  during  the  first  year  of  Jackson's  Administration 
cannot  be  determined  with  precision.  Schouler,1  while  mak 
ing  no  attempt  definitely  to  fix  the  number,  says  that  "some 
have  placed  the  number  as  high  as  two  thousand."  In  view 
of  the  evidence  of  contemporaries  available,  it  does  seem  that 
a  fairly  accurate  idea  should  be  obtained.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  in  this  connection  that  while  Jackson's  enemies  were 
dealing  in  sweeping  generalities,  his  defenders  were  furnishing 
figures. 

And  among  the  defenders  none  is  more  reliable  than 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  whose  veracity  or  personal  honesty  has 
never  been  impeached  or  questioned,  and  he  tells  us  2  that 
there  were  whole  classes  of  office-holders  that  were  not  mo 
lested;  that  those  wh^  functions  were  of  a  judicial  nature 
were  not  disturbs  a,  and  that  in  the  departments  at  Washing 
ton  a  majority  remained  opposed  to  Jackson  through  his  two 
Administrations.  More  important  still  —  he  tells  us  that 
Jackson  not  only  left  a  majority  of  his  enemies  in  office,  but 
that  in  some  instances  he  actually  reappointed  personal  and 
political  enemies  where  they  were  "especially  efficient  offi 
cers."  And  he  lays  stress  upon  the  point  that  where  men, 
who  had  bitterly  fought  Jackson  in  the  election,  were  not  re- 
appointed,  a  hue  and  cry  was  raised  that  they  had  been  de- 

1  History  of  the  United  States.  »  Thirty  Years'  View,  i.  160. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE    73 

nied  a  right.  Corroborating  this,  we  have  the  evidence  of  Amos 
Kendall,1  who  wrote,  after  the  Administration  had  been  in 
power  a  year  and  a  half:  "He  [Jackson]  is  charged  with  hav 
ing  turned  out  of  office  all  who  were  opposed  to  him,  when  a 
majority  of  the  office-holders  in  Washington  are  known  to 
be  in  favor  of  his  rivals.  In  that  city  the  removals  have  been 
but  one  seventh  of  those  in  office,  and  most  of  them  for  bad 
conduct  and  character.  In  the  Post-Office  Department,  toward 
which  have  been  directed  the  heaviest  complaints,  the  re 
movals  have  been  only  about  one  sixteenth;  in  the  whole 
Government,  one  eleventh."  And  to  the  evidence  of  both 
Benton  and  Kendall,  either  one  of  whom  would  have  been 
incapable  of  deliberate  falsehood,  we  may  add  the  less  relia 
ble,  because  more  prejudiced,  evidence  of  Isaac  Hill,  given  in 
a  public  speech  at  Concord  in  the  late  summer  of  1829.  "It 
is  worthy  of  observation,"  he  said,  "  that  at  least  two  thirds 
of  the  offices  of  profit  at  the  seat  of  the  National  Gov 
ernment,  after  the  removals  thus  far  made,  are  still  held  by 
persons  who  were  opposed  to  the  election  of  General  Jack 
son."  2  A  more  detailed  study  of  the  removals  actually  made 
show  that,  while  there  were  8600  post-offices  in  1829,  less 
than  800  postmasters  were  removed,  and  these,  largely,  in 
the  more  important  centers,  leaving  7800  undisturbed. 

One  of  the  most  serious  charges  against  Jackson  in  con 
nection  with  these  removals  is  thaferta.  practiced  duplicity, 
reassuring  a  trembling  office-holder  one  dAjjs.only  to  remove 
him,  without  warning,  on  the  next;  and  this  story  is  based 
upon  what  the  officer  in  charge  of  Indian  affairs  under 
Adams  declares  to  have  been  his  personal  experience.  Ac 
cording  to  his  story,  Eaton,  his  superior  officer,  suggested 
that  he  should  see  the  President  to  meet  some  charges  that 
had  been  made  against  him;  that  on  visiting  Jackson  he  ha*d 
made  a  solemn  denial,  satisfied  the  President,  and  been  pre 
sented  by  him  to  the  members  of  his  household;  that  on  the 

1  Kendall's  Autobiography.  2  Bradley's  Life  of  Hill. 


74    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

next  day  a  gentleman  entered  the  Indian  Office,  and,  after 
looking  around,  explained  that  the  place  had  been  offered 
him  by  the  President  that  morning,  but  that  he  did  not 
intend  to  accept;  that  the  position  was  afterwards  offered  to 
others,  and  that  the  dismissal  finally  reached  him  in  Phila 
delphia  while  there  on  official  business.  This  places  Jackson 
in  a  sinister  light;  but  our  commissioner  adds,  that  one  close 
to  the  Administration  said:  "Why,  sir,  everybody  knows 
your  qualifications  for  the  place,  but  General  Jackson  has 
been  long  satisfied  that  you  are  not  in  harmony  with  his 
views  in  regard  to  the  Indians."  *  This  raises  the  question 
whether  a  President  chosen  by  the  people  is  entitled  to  his 
own  governmental  policies  or  should  be  forced  to  accept  such 
as  may  be  handed  to  him  by  subordinates  who  received  their 
appointments  by  preference,  and  not  from  the  hands  of  the 
people.  That  this  removal  was  the  President's  own  idea 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  Eaton,  Secretary  of  War, 
under  whom  Indian  affairs  came,  was  not  in  favor  of  the  dis 
missal. 

is  worth  recording  that  Van  Buren  kept  his  department 
comparatively  free  from  the  spoils  idea.  But  even  the  most 
intense  partisan  of  Jackson  will  be  hard  pressed  to  find  any 
proper  reason  for  the  spiteful  recall  of  William  Henry  Harri 
son  from  Bogota,  where  he  had  just  presented  his  credentials 
as  United  States  Minister  to  Colombia.  This  recall  was 
opposed  very  earnestly  by  Postmaster-General  Barry,  who 
frankly  said  to  the  President: 

"If  you  had  seen  him  as  I  did  on  the  Thames,  you  would, 
I  think,  let  him  alone. " 

"You  may  be  right,  Barry,"  Jackson  replied.    "I  reckon 
you  are.  But  thank  God  I  did  n't  see  him  there."  2 
mDark  though  the  picture  is  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  cjvil 
service  reformer,  there  is  another  possible  point  of  view.  All 

1  McKinney,  The  Office-Holder's  Sword  of  Damocles. 

2  Story  related  by  William  Allen  to  Buell. 


THE  RE  D  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE    75 

the  officials  dismissed  from  places  were  not  high-minded 
conscientious  public  servants,  for  among  them  were  numer 
ous  criminals.  The  dismissal  of  Tobias  Watkins  an  Adam 
appointee  and  a  personal  friend  of  the  former  President,  t< 
make  place  for  Amos  Kendall,  was  the  occasion  for  a  grea 
outburst  of  indignation  from  the  Opposition.  Within  a  montl 
the  product  of  the  spoils  system  had  discovered  frauds  on  th 
part  of  the  "martyr"  to  the  amount  of  more  than  $7000,  and  \ 
an  arrest  followed.  He  was  convicted  and  served  his  time  in 
prison.  Nor  was  that  of  Watkins  an  isolated  case.  Thus  the 
collector  at  Buffalo  1  had  procured  false  receipts  for  money 
never  paid  and  was  given  credit  at  the  Treasury;  the  collec 
tor  at  Key  West 2  had  permitted  an  unlawful  trade  between 
Cuba  and  Florida;  the  collector  at  Bath,  Maine,3  was  dis 
missed  for  personally  using  $56,315  of  the  public  funds;  the 
collector  at  Portsmouth  4  was  shown  to  have  engaged  in 
smuggling;  the  collector  at  St.  Marks  5  was  shown  to  have\ 
been  plundering  live-oak  from  the  public  lands;  the  collector 
at  Petersburg  6  had  used  $24,857  of  the  public  money;  the 
collector  at  Perth  Amboy  7  had  made  false  returns,  appropri 
ated  to  his  own  use  $88,000  of  the  public  money,  and  fled 
to  Canada;  the  collector  at  Elizabeth  City,  North  Carolina,8 
had  converted  $32,791  to  his  personal  use  and  joined  the 
other  "martyr"  to  the  spoils  system  on  Canadian  soil.9  In 
brief,  the  introduction  of  the  spoils  system  had  resulted,  in 
eighteen  months,  in  the  uncovering  of  peculations  in  the 
Treasury  Department  alone  of  more  than  $280,000  by  men 
whose  dismissal  from  office  had  called  forth  the  unmeasured 
denunciation  of  Jackson's  enemies,  and  it  is  manifestly  un 
fair  to  withhold  these  facts  while  placing  emphasis  upon  the 
"dismissal  of  collector  to  make  way  for  Jackson's  hench- 


1  M.  M.  Cox.      2  William  Pinckney.     3  John  B.  Swanton.    *  Timothy  Upham. 
BD.L.  White.    6  J.  Robertson.  7  R.  Arnold.  8  Asa  Rogerson. 

9  These  'facts  are  taken  from  Ritchie's  Richmond  Enquirer,  and  are  quoted  in 
Professor  Tyler's  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers. 


76    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Thus,  throughout  the  spring  and  summer  of  1829,  the 
President  and  his  Cabinet  were  bored,  harassed,  and  tor 
tured  with  importunities  for  place,  denounced  as  ingrates 
because  they  left  any  of  the  enemies  in  office,  and  damned 
by  the  enemy  for  every  dismissal  that  was  made. 


n 

THE  spring  and  summer  was  the  time  of  the  Red  Terror. 

The  White  Terror  of  retaliation  began  with  the  meeting  of 
the  hostile  Senate  in  December. 

The  enemies  of  Jackson  sought  the  earliest  possible  oppor 
tunity  to  denounce  the  wholesale  dismissals,  and  the  bril 
liant  orators  of  the  Opposition  in  the  House  made  intemperate 
attacks,  while  in  the  Senate  Webster  spoke  against  the  policy 
of  proscription,  without,  however,  adopting  the  absurd  posi 
tion  that  the  President  did  not  possess  the  constitutional 
power.1  The  early  part  of  the  session  was  given  over  to  de 
nunciations  of  the  removals,  and  to  a  frankly  hostile  scrutiny, 
on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  of  all  nominations  requiring  on- 
firmation.  It  foreshadowed  the  bitter  party  battles  of  the 
next  eight  years  by  rejecting  the  nominations  of  some  of 
Jackson's  most  ardent  supporters  in  the  campaign,  and  by 
taking  the  ridiculous  position  that  journalists  should  be  ex 
cluded  from  appointive  office.  This  proscription,  or  mas 
sacre  of  the  editors,  was  aimed  at  men,  comparatively  new  to 
public  life,  who  were  speedily  to  develop  into  the  most  bril 
liant  and  sagacious  of  the  Jacksonian  leaders.  Long  and 
acrimonious  executive  sessions  became  the  rule  of  the  Senate. 
In  some  instances,  action  upon  nominations  was  postponed 
for  months  under  provocative  circumstances  that  were  not 
lost  upon  the  fighting  figure  at  the  other  end  of  the  Avenue. 
The  charge  was  made  that  a  number  of  the  President's  nom 
inees  were  "vicious  characters."  It  was  in  the  early  days  of 
this  session  that  a  comparatively  new  Senator,  elected  upon 

1  Lodge's  Life  of  Webster,  167. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        77 

the  supposition  that  he  would  support  the  President  and  his 
policies,  and  destined  to  be  the  only  member  of  the  Senate  to 
realize  personally  upon  that  body's  venomous  hostility  to  the 
Administration,  stepped  forth  to  organize  and  direct  the 
fight  against  the  confirmation  of  nominees  in  whom  the  Pres 
ident  was  deeply  interested.  John  Tyler  led  the  first  on 
slaught  on  the  Administration. 

It  is  important  to  pause  to  contemplate  Tyler's  character 
and  career,  because  he  typifies  those  Democrats  who  were  so 
soon  to  enter  into  cooperation  with  the  Whigs  in  opposition, 
and  because  history  has  been  unjust  in  underestimating  both 
his  capacity  and  courage.  We  shall  find  him  pursuing  Jack 
son  throughout  the  greater  part  of  his  Presidency,  and  pay 
ing  the  penalty  to  the  people  with  a  manliness  which  found 
little  emulation  among  men  to  whom  history  has  been  more 
gracious. 

John  Tyler  was  the  scion  of  a  family  distinguished  in  law 
and  in  politics.  His  father  was  a  fine  Revolutionary  figure, 
and  one  of  the  first  lawyers  in  Virginia.  He  inherited  his 
father's  ability,  predilections,  and  prejudices.  Within  three 
months  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he  was  employed  in 
every  important  case  in  the  county,  and  when,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-seven,  he  abandoned  his  practice  to  enter  Congress, 
his  income  was  $2000  a  year,  which  was  $1300  more  than 
Webster's  at  the  same  age.1  On  reaching  Washington,  he  was 
cordially  welcomed  by  the  Madisons  into  the  White  House 
circle.  He  was  fond  of  the  society  of  the  President's  house, 
disliked  the  French  cooking,  but  found  consolation  in  the 
excellent  champagne  of  which  he  was  very  fond.2  He  found 
Clay,  with  whom  he  was  to  be  associated  in  the  fights  against 
Jackson,  in  the  Speaker's  chair,  and  fell  under  the  spell  of 
his  fascination.  It  was  then,  too,  that  he  formed  his  intense 
admiration  for  Calhoun. 

1  Professor  Tyler's  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  236. 

2  Letter  to  his  wife,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  £88. 


78    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

His  hostility  to  Jackson  and  Jacksonian  methods  was  first 
manifested  in  his  support  of  the  resolutions  censuring  the 
General  for  his  course  in  Florida.  There  is  no  doubt  that  at 
this  time  he  had  formed  a  deep-seated  prejudice  against  the 
military  hero.  "We  are  engaged  with  Jackson  and  the  Pres 
ident,"  he  wrote  home  at  the  time.  "I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives  have  been  violated  in  the  capture  and  detention  of 
Pensacola  and  the  Barancas;  that  Jackson  overstepped  his 
orders;  and  that  the  President  has  improperly  approved  his 
proceedings,  and  that  the  whole  are  culpable."  1  But  there 
was  a  more  powerful  and  less  personal  reason  for  his  enmity 
to  the  Jackson  Administration,  which  developed  during  this 
period.  He  had  already  become  a  sectionali^t.  Like  Calhoun 
in  later  life,  and  Webster  in  1820,' he  began  to  sense  a  struggle 
between  the  sections  over  the  balance  of  power.  Thus  early 
he  commenced  to  question  the  permanency  of  the  Union.  In 
the  Missouri  fight,  in  a  strong  speech  against  the  restriction 
of  slavery,  he  alone,  among  all  participating  on  his  side, 
advanced  the  proposition  that  the  Congress  possessed  no 
constitutional  power  to  pass  a  law  prohibiting  slavery  in  the 
Territories.2  We  find  him  writing3  that  "men  talk  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union  with  perfect  nonchalance  and  indif 
ference."  When,  in  his  thirty-first  year,  he  voluntarily  retired 
to  private  life  to  retrieve  his  fortunes,  he  had  made  an  im 
pression  so  profound  that  it  was  predicted  that  he  would  rise 
to  high  station.4 

When  in  1827  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  Senate  against 
the  brilliant  and  vitriolic  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  we 
find  the  elements  working  that  were  to  ripen  him  for  the 
break  with  the  Jackson  Administration,  and  for  association 
with  Clay's  party  of  incongruities  and  nondescripts.  After 

1  Letter  to  Dr.  Curtis,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  305. 

2  National  Intelligencer,  Sept.  15,  1859.  s  To  Dr.  Curtis. 
4  The  prediction  of  Justice  Baldwin  of  the  Supreme  Court. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        79 

the  inauguration  of  Adams,  he  had  written  Clay  commending 
his  action  in  throwing  his  support  to  the  Puritan,  assuring 
him  of  his  contempt  for  the  "bargain"  story,  and  unnecessa 
rily  adding  a  fling  at  Jackson:  "I  do  not  believe  that  the  so 
ber  and  reflecting  people  of  Virginia  would  have  been  so  far 
dazzled  by  military  renown  as  to  have  conferred  their  suffrage 
upon  a  mere  soldier  —  one  acknowledged  on  every  hand  to  be 
of  little  value  as  a  civilian."  *  When  Randolph  so  viciously 
attacked  Adams  and  Clay  on  the  "bargain"  story,  Tyler  be 
came  his  most  uncompromising  foe.  In  some  manner  his  let 
ter  to  Clay  found  its  way  into  the  newspapers,  resulting  in 
much  feeling,  letter- writing,  charges  and  counter-charges  and 
journalizing,  and  the  supporters  of  Tyler  interpreted  the  use 
of  the  letter  as  an  attempt  to  coerce  him  into  support  of  Jack 
son  in  1828.  If  such  was  the  purpose,  it  failed.  He  was 
elected  without  having  pledged  himself,  and  at  a  compli 
mentary  dinner  after  his  election,  he  referred  to  Jackson  in  a 
sneering  fashion. 

And  now  we  begin  to  understand  the  underlying  causes 
that  took  Tyler  and  other  Southern  Democrats  out  of  the 
party  and  into  the  Whig  ranks  during  the  Jackson  period. 
On  reaching  Washington  in  December,  1827,  we  find  him 
writing  to  a  correspondent:  "My  hopes  are  increased  from 
the  following  fact  .  .  .  that  in  the  nature  of  things,  General 
Jackson  must  surround  himself  by  a  Cabinet  composed  of 
men  advocating,  to  a  great  extent,  the  doctrines  so  dear  to 
us.  Pass  them  in  review  before  you  —  Clinton,  Van  Buren, 
Tazewell,  Cheves,  Macon,  P.  P.  Barbour,  men  who,  in  the 
main,  concur  with  us  in  sentiment.  Furthermore,  General 
Jackson  will  have  to  encounter  a  strong  opposition.  He  will 
require  an  active  support  at  our  hands.  Should  he  abuse  Vir 
ginia  by  setting  at  nought  her  political  sentiments,  he  will 
find  her  at  the  head  of  the  opposition,  and  he  will  probably 
experience  the  fate  of  J.  Q.  A."  2  The  Cabinet,  when  an- 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  360. 

2  Letter  to  John  Rutherford,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  378. 


80    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

nounced,  does  not  seem  to  have  satisfied  him,  albeit  Van  Bu- 
ren,  of  whose  views  on  slavery  extension  he  appears  to  have 
been  misinformed,  was  a  member.  The  presence  of  Berrien 
and  Branch  ought,  perhaps,  to  have  reassured  him,  but  they 
were  a  minority,  and  they  did  not  satisfy  Calhoun,  of  whom 
they  were  devoted  disciples. 

Thus,  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Jackson  regime,  Ty 
ler  was  suspicious,  and  ripe  for  the  Opposition.  In  the  spoils 
system  he  found  a  pretext  for  dissatisfaction,  and  he  pro 
ceeded  to  develop  this  into  a  rather  petty  persecution.  It 
would  be  a  mistake  to  underrate  the  effect  of  his  opposition. 
He  was  highly  respected  by  his  colleagues.  His  dignity, 
courtliness,  urbanity,  and  ease  gave  him  a  certain  social  pres 
tige.  He  was  an  interesting  and  likable  companion,  and  his 
polished  conversation  had  impelled  an  English  novelist 1  to 
describe  it  as  superior  to  that  of  any  one  he  had  met  in  Amer 
ica.  His  appearance  was  not  against  him.  Tall  and  slender, 
of  patrician  mould,  his  Roman  nose,  firm  mouth,  broad  and 
lofty  brow,  and  honest  blue  eyes  combined  to  give  him  a  dis 
tinction  that  marked  him  in  an  assembly.  He  was  not  a  mere 
professional  politician  of  a  type  to  be  developed  later  in  the 
Republic.  His  letters  to  his  daughter  2  concerning  her  stud 
ies,  on  poetry,  fiction,  and  history,  denote  a  discriminating 
student  and  lover  of  literature.  It  was  this  occasional  detach 
ment  from  the  political  world  which  made  it  possible  for  him, 
during  the  famous  debate  on  the  Foot  Resolution,  to  enter 
tain  himself  in  the  Senate  Chamber  in  the  reading  of  Moore's 
"Life  of  Byron."  We  shall  now  observe  him  launch  the 
White  Terror  against  the  Red. 

Ill 

AMONG  the  nominations,  mostly  for  comparatively  minor  po 
sitions,  sent  to  the  Senate  by  Jackson  were  those  of  a  "batch 
of  editors."3  Strangely  enough,  this  seems  to  have  rather 

1  G.  P.  R.  James.  2  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers. 

,  *  Tyler's  term,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I.  408. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        81 

affronted  the  somewhat  ponderous  dignity  of  that  body.  So 
strongly  did  it  then  impress  the  Senate  that  it  has  made  an 
ugly  impression  upon  a  number  of  historians.  Even  Schou- 
ler1  is  distressed  to  find  so  many  mere  "press  writers"  on 
the  list.  Whether  the  fact  that  they  were  mere  editors  was 
enough  to  make  them  "infamous  characters,"  we  are  left  to 
conjecture.  The  secret  of  the  strange  antipathy  to  a  class 
long  conceded  to  be  among  the  most  influential  of  any  nation 
is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  until  this  time  the 
lawyers  were  conceded  a  monopoly  in  public  station.  There 
was  a  reason  for  Jackson's  change  of  policy,  and  it  grew  out 
of  the  organization  of  party  and  the  democratization  of  gov 
ernment.  Unlike  his  predecessors,  he  had  not  depended  for 
support,  nor  did  he  expect  to  look  exclusively  for  support  to 
the  professional  politicians  and  the  wealthy.  As  a  candidate 
his  appeal  had  been  —  for  the  first  time  in  American  history 
—  to  the  people.  As  a  President  he  proposed  to  look  to  the 
same  quarter.  With  the  people  actually  established  as  the 
ultimate  power  in  the  State,  according  to  the  theory  of 
American  institutions,  he  was  not  unmindful  of  the  necessity 
of  reaching  the  people  with  his  case.  He  was  the  first  Presi 
dent  fully  to  appreciate  the  power  of  the  press.  He  could  see 
no  reason  why  men  capable  of  presenting  and  popularizing 
a  policy  or  principle  should  be  excluded  from  the  privilege 
of  helping  put  it  in  operation. 

In  the  campaign  of  1828  he  had  been  opposed  by  the 
greater  portion  of  the  press,  but  he  had  found  champions  — 
men  of  capacity  and  talent,  who  had  fought  the  good  fight 
for  him,  and  not  without  effect.  The  assumption  that  all 
these  men  were  bribed  by  the  promise  of  place  would  be  a 
violent  one  indeed.  And  the  "batch  of  editors"  whose 
names  he  sent  to  the  Senate  were  men  who  had  long  been 
attached  to  the  cause  that  Jackson  personified.  Some  had 
more  recently  allied  themselves  with  the  cause,  but  in  every 

1  History  of  tlie  United  States. 


82    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

instance  there  was  a  sound  reason  for  the  change  of  front, 
and  in  these  cases  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had  met  the 
President  in  the  campaign  or  had  any  expectations. 

And  these  men,  having  received  recess  appointments,  were 
at  their  posts  or  on  their  way.  Those  already  at  their  posts 
had  given  ample  proof  of  their  capacity.  One,  against  whom 
considerable  bitterness  was  felt,  had  speedily  uncovered  the 
peculations  of  a  highly  respectable  predecessor  who  was  not  a 
"press  writer,"  and  that  gentleman  was  languishing  in  the 
penitentiary.  The  Senate,  apparently,  did  not  consider  this  a 
service  to  the  State  worthy  of  reward.  While  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  partisan  enemies  of  Jackson  were  delighted  at 
the  opportunity  personally  to  affront  him,  and  while  it  is 
certain  that  Clay's  friends  were  anxious  to  punish  one,  and 
Adams's  friends  to  humiliate  another,  the  actual  conspiracy 
to  defeat  the  confirmation  of  the  editors  originated  with  John 
Tyler,  in  close  cooperation  with  Senator  Tazewell  of  Virginia 
• —  who  was  still  smarting  under  his  defeat  in  the  contest 
with  Van  Buren  for  the  secretaryship  of  State. 

The  editors  who  thus  fell  under  the  haughty  displeasure 
of  the  Senate  were  Major  Henry  Lee,  James  B.  Gardner, 
Moses  Dawson,  Mordecai  M.  Noah,  Amos  Kendall,  and 
Isaac  Hill. 

Charges  of  a  personal  nature  were  made  against  Lee,  who 
had  been  appointed  consul-general  to  Algiers.  He  was  a 
half-brother  of  Robert  E.  Lee  and  a  man  of  brilliant  parts. 
During  the  campaign  he  had  lived  with  Jackson  at  the 
Hermitage  "writing  for  his  election  some  of  the  finest  cam 
paign  papers  ever  penned  in  this  country."  1  One  who  saw 
him  there  at  the  time  has  recorded  his  impressions.  "He 
was  not  handsome,  as  his  half-brother,  Robert  E.  Lee,  but 
rather  ugly  in  face  —  a  mouth  without  a  line  of  the  bow  of 
Diana  about  it,  and  nose,  not  clean-cut  and  classic,  but 
rather  meaty,  and,  if  we  may  use  the  word,'  blood  meaty'; 

1  Henry  S.  Wise,  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  99. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        83 

but  he  was  one  of  the  most  attractive  men  in  conversation 
we  ever  listened  to."  1  He  had  served  in  the  Virginia  House 
of  Delegates  with  Tyler,  and  had  been  a  college  mate. 
"Moreover,"  writes  Tyler,  "I  regarded  him  as  a  man  of 
considerable  intellectual  attainments  and  of  a  high  order 
of  talent."  2  But  this  did  not  operate  in  his  favor.  He  had 
assisted  in  the  writing  of  Jackson's  inaugural  address,  and 
is  said  to  have  been  mostly  responsible  for  its  literary  form. 
The  fact  that  his  morals  were  not  considered  impeccable  was 
sufficient  as  a  pretext,  and  the  news  of  his  rejection  reached 
him  in  Paris,  where  he  died.  Tyler  afterwards  protested 
that  he  had  found  it  painful  to  vote  against  his  confirmation, 
and  had  expressed  his  opinion  of  Lee's  "innocence  of  certain 
more  aggravated  additions  to  the  charge  under  which  he 
labored." 

Isaac  Hill,  of  the  "New  Hampshire  Patriot,"  was  easily 
slaughtered  on  the  ground  that  during  the  campaign  he  had 
"slandered  Mrs.  Adams."  In  addition  to  the  publication  of 
his  paper,  the  most  vigorous  and  clever  Jacksonian  organ  in 
New  England,  he  conducted  a  publishing  house,  and  his 
offense  lay  in  having  published  a  book  in  which  Mrs.  Adams 
was  described  as  an  "English  woman"  with  little  sympathy 
for  American  institutions.  The  hollo wness  of  this  excuse  is 
evident  in  the  fact  that  several  Senators  who  had  been 
shocked  at  this  offense  had  regaled  drawing-rooms  with 
jokes  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  pipe,  and  on  Mrs.  Eaton's  being  a 
proper  "lady  in  waiting"  for  the  President's  wife  since 
"birds  of  a  feather  flock  together."  3  The  real  reason  for  his 
rejection  was  that  he  had  incurred  the  bitter  enmity  of  the 
Opposition  by  his  telling  paragraphs  during  the  campaign. 
Immediately  after  his  rejection,  two  Senators  hastened  to 
the  home  of  John  Quincy  Adams  with  the  news,  and  the  old 

1  Henry  S.  Wise,  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  99. 

2  Letter  to  Richard  T.  Brown,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  409. 
8  Mrs.  Smith,  in  First  Forty  Years,  p.  253,  refers  to  such  conversations. 


84    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

man  made  the  comment  in  his  diary  that  night  that  Hill 
"was  the  editor  of  the  'New  Hampshire  Patriot,'  one  of  the 
most  slanderous  newspapers  against  the  late  Administration, 
and  particularly  against  me,  in  the  country." 

Mordecai  M.  Noah,  editor  of  the  "National  Advocate"  of 
New  York  City,  appointed  surveyor  and  inspector  of  the 
port  of  New  York,  appears  to  have  tickled  the  risibles  of  the 
Senators  of  the  Opposition,  though  his  distinguished  career 
entitles  him  to  the  respect  of  posterity.  One  important  and 
memorable  service  to  the  Nation  should  have  made  him 
immune  from  the  common  hate.  Sixteen  years  before  he  had 
been  sent  as  consul  to  Tunis  with  a  special  mission  to  Algiers. 
We  had  been  paying  an  annual  tribute  to  Algiers  for  the 
privilege  of  navigating  the  Mediterranean,  and  Noah,  the 
journalist,  had  denounced  the  practice  and  declared  that  the 
money  could  be  better  spent  in  the  building  of  warships.  He 
succeeded  on  his  Algerian  mission  in  ransoming  American 
prisoners  who  were  being  held  in  slavery,  but  such  was  the 
bigotry  of  the  time  that,  after  his  work  was  done,  he  was 
recalled  on  the  flimsy  pretense  that  his  Jewish  religion  was 
impossible  in  Tunis.  At  the  time  he  was  honored  by  Jackson, 
he  was  not  only  distinguished  by  his  public  service,  but 
because  of  his  journalistic  genius,  and  he  had  written  his 
"Travels  in  England,  France,  Spain,  and  the  Barbary 
States."  He  deserves  his  place  in  Morais's  "Eminent  Israel 
ites  of  the  19th  Century."  But  he  had  rendered  valuable 
service  to  Jackson  in  the  campaign,  and  the  bigoted  members 
of  the  Senate  rejected  him  with  much  hilarity. 

The  first  setback  the  Opposition  received  came  in  the  con 
sideration  of  the  nomination  of  Amos  Kendall,  of  the  "Ken 
tucky  Argus."  He  had,  at  the  time,  served  for  months  with 
marked  ability  as  auditor  of  the  Treasury,  rooting  out  old 
and  vicious  practices,  uncovering  the  crimes  of  his  predeces 
sor,  but  he  had  left  the  camp  of  Clay  to  do  yeoman  service 
for  Jackson,  and  that  was  quite  enough.  Adams  himself  was 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE    85 

deeply  interested  in  his  humiliation.  In  the  midst  of  the 
campaign  he  had  been  consulted  by  Clay  touching  upon 
"testimony  given  by  Amos  Kendall  before  the  Senate  of 
Kentucky  intended  to  support  charges  against  Mr.  Clay  of 
corrupt  bargaining  with  me";  and,  on  Clay's  representation, 
no  doubt,  describes  the  editor  as  "one  of  those  authors  to 
let,  whose  profligacy  is  the  child  of  his  poverty."  But  the 
vote  on  Kendall  was  a  tie,  and  Calhoun  cast  the  deciding 
vote  in  his  favor. 

Tyler  was  delighted  with  his  work.  "On  Monday  we  took 
the  printers  in  hand,"  he  wrote.  "Kendall  was  saved  by  the 
casting  vote  of  the  Vice  President .  .  .  Hendricks  [Indiana], 
who  was  supported  by  the  last  Administration,  was  induced 
to  vote  for  him  and  in  that  way  he  was  saved.  Out  of  those 
presented  to  the  Senate,  but  two  squeezed  through,  and  that 
with  the  whole  power  of  the  Government  here  thrown  in  the 
scale."  *  Kendall  tells  an  interesting  story  which  shows  that 
the  friends  of  Calhoun  were  quietly  at  work  to  convince  the 
rejected  editors  that  their  humiliation  had  been  brought 
about  through  the  secret  influence  of  Van  Buren.  Even  then 
the  Little  Magician,  as  Van  Buren  was  called,  was  considered 
the  greatest  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  South  Carolinian's 
progress  toward  the  White  House,  and  it  was  the  evident 
purpose  to  send  the  editors,  miserable  "press  writers" 
though  they  were,  back  to  their  papers  to  fight  the  aspira 
tions  of  Van  Buren.  Before  the  vote  was  taken  on  Kendall, 
he  was  approached  by  Duff  Green,  of  the  "National  Tele 
graph,"  Calhoun 's  organ,  and  assured  that  the  Van  Buren 
influence  was  responsible  for  the  fight  against  him.  This 
aroused  the  curiosity  of  the  clever  Kendall,  who  "had  never 
heard  of  such  influence,"  and  he  instantly  surmised  the  mean 
ing  of  the  message.  Thus,  when  Green,  predicting  his  rejec 
tion,  suggested  that  the  Kentuckian  could  return  to  the  "Ar 
gus,"  the  latter  replied  that  he  would  remain  in  Washington 
in  that  event. 

1  Letter  to  R.  W.  Christian,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  408. 


86    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

The  effect  of  these  rejections  on  Jackson  was  like  a  slap  in 
the  face.  It  aroused  all  the  lion  in  his  nature.  He  had  grown 
fond  of  the  editors  who  had  so  vigorously  fought  his  battles, 
and  his  heart  was  set  on  their  reward.  It  was  the  Senate's 
first  challenge,  and  it  was  instantly  accepted.  It  was  clear 
that  nothing  could  be  done  for  Lee,  where  the  vote  was  unan 
imous,  but  Jackson  decided  to  renominate  Noah,  and  we  find 
Tyler  writing  to  Tazewell:  "The  President  this  morning  re- 
nominated  Noah.  This  is  a  prelude  to  Hill's  renomination. 
Your  presence,  I  apprehend,  would  be  immaterial,  as  the  re 
sult  of  any  vote  upon  these  subjects  would  not  be  varied. 
Monday  is  fixed  for  the  consideration  of  Noah's  case."  1  On 
the  second  attempt,  Noah  was  confirmed,  like  Kendall,  with 
the  casting  jvot^of^Calhoun . 

But  the  President  had  other  plans  for  his  favorite,  Hill, 
over  whose  sharp  retorts  the  General  had  so  heartily  chuckled 
during  the  campaign.  Webb,  the  editor  of  the  "Courier  and 
Enquirer  "  of  New  York,  denounced  in  his  paper  the  Senate's 
rejection  of  Hill.  "Isaac  Hill,"  he  wrote,  "is  a  printer  and 
was  the  editor  of  the  'New  Hampshire  Patriot.'  He  was  al 
ways  the  friend  of  his  country  and  its  republican  institutions, 
and  when  that  country,  during  the  late  war,  was  about  to  be 
sold  by  traitors  to  the  enemy;  when  the  war  was  declared 
wicked  and  unjustifiable,  and  the  Hartford  Convention  med 
itated  the  formation  of  a  separate  treaty  with  England,  his 
voice  was  heard  in  the  Granite  State  and  in  the  mountains  of 
Vermont,  animating  the  people  and  arousing  them  to  a  just 
sense  of  their  danger,  and  the  blessings  of  freedom.  He  was  a 
thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Tories,  and  though  living  in  the  hot 
bed  of  the  Opposition,  he  pursued  his  course  fearlessly,  inde 
pendently,  and  successfully."  Writing  from  Jefferson  Bar 
racks,  General  Henry  Leavenworth  entered  his  protest,  a 
non-partisan  one:  "Isaac  Hill  with  his  'New  Hampshire 
Patriot*  did  more  than  any  one  man  known  to  me  to  put 
»  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i.  408. 


THE  RED  TERROR  AND  THE  WHITE        87 

down  the  'peace  societies'  during  the  war,"  he  wrote,  and 
he  described  enlistments  under  him  following  Hill's  patriotic 
exhortations. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  these  protests  were  not  unin 
spired,  and  that  the  fine  Italian  hand  of  Amos  Kendall,  who 
had  already  become  the  managerial  genius  of  the  Adminis 
tration,  was  in  them.  Certain  it  is  that  the  most  effective 
move  was  that  of  Kendall  in  writing  to  the  Democracy  of 
New  Hampshire  that  the  President  "has  entire  confidence  in 
Mr.  Hill  and  looks  upon  his  rejection  as  a  blow  aimed  at  him 
self,"  and  putting  it  up  to  the  legislature  to  "wipe  away  the 
stigma  cast  upon  this  just  and  true  man,  by  the  unjust  and 
cruel  vote  of  the  Senate."  The  New  Hampshire  Democrats 
understood,  and  a  little  later  Isaac  Hill  walked  down  the 
aisle  of  the  Senate  that  had  humiliated  and  rejected  him  to 
take  the  oath  as  a  Senator  of  the  United  States. 

Thus  the  Senate's  fight  against  Jackson  began  at  the  earli 
est  possible  moment.  Clay  had  begun  his  denunciations  of 
the  Administration  before  it  was  three  weeks  old;  and  the 
Senate  sought  an  opportunity  personally  to  affront  the  Presi 
dent  before  he  had  announced  a  policy  or  a  programme. 


CHAPTER  IV 
JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN. 

/  l 

,    THE  definite  break  between  Calhoun  and  Jackson  was  one  of 

\  the  most  dramatic  and  far-reaching  in  its  political  effects  of 
'  any  similar  quarrel  in  American  history.  It  furnished  Clay 
with  new  material  for  the  building  of  his  party.  It  decisively 
committed  the  party  of  Jackson  to  the  defense  of  the  Union. 
It  eliminated  Calhoun  from  the  list  of  presidential  possibili 
ties,  dropped  the  curtain  on  the  South  Carolinian  that  the 
Nation  had  known  for  two  decades,  and  raised  it  on  another 
with  whom  the  world  is  well  acquainted.  It  divided  his  life 
into  two  distinct  parts.  It  made  Martin  Van  Buren  Presi 
dent.^ 

The  Calhoun  who  was  to  become  one  of  Clay's  most  vitu 
perative  and  intemperate  lieutenants  in  the  fight  against  the 
Administration  differs  as  radically  from  the  ambitious  politi 
cian  who  had  intrigued  for  the  election  of  Jackson  as  the 
Webster  of  the  Great  Debate  differed  from  the  Webster  of 
the  Rockingham  Resolutions. 

The  greatest  biographer  of  the  Carolinian  1  fixes  the  time 
that  he  became  the  personification  of  the  slavery  cause  as 
1830  —  the  date  of  the  quarrel  —  and  says  that  "up  to  that 
time  he  is,  in  spite  of  his  uncommonly  brilliant  career,  only  an 
able  politician  of  the  higher  and  nobler  order,  having  many 
peers  and  even  a  considerable  number  of  superiors."  Of  the 
three  great  figures,  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun,  he  was 
admittedly  the  strongest  intellectually,  and  the  one  most  un 
mistakably  touched  with  genius.  Nature  made  him  a  states 
man.  Swept  into  Congress  on  the  wave  of  patriotic  enthu- 

1  Von  Hoist. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN    89 

siasm  following  the  attack  on  the  Chesapeake,  his  audacity, 
independent  thinking,  militancy,  and  genius  combined  to 
place  him  in  the  very  lead  of  the  party  of  Young  America 
that  clamored  for  the  War  of  1812.  He  sounded  the  first 
clear  official  war  note  in  his  report  on  that  part  of  Madison's 
Message  dealing  with  our  relations  with  England;  and  after 
the  delivery  of  his  first  war  speech  one  of  the  leading  editors 
of  the  day  hailed  "this  young  Carolinian  as  one  of  the  master 
spirits  who  stamp  their  names  upon  the  age  in  which  they 
live."  1  In  his  haughty  assumption  of  equality  with  the  old 
est  and  most  experienced  members  of  the  Congress,  he  sug 
gests  the  younger  Pitt.  His  war  speeches  were  classics  of  ar 
gumentation,  sober,  and  yet  pulsating  with  patriotic  passion. 
If  any  sectional  thought  crossed  his  mind  then,  it  never 
touched  his  tongue.  He  jgas  a  superb_Natjpnalist  —  one  of 
the  most  splendid  figures  of  his  time.  Summoned  into  Mon 
roe's  Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  War,  he  disclosed  a  high  order 
of  executive  as  well  as  legislative  ability.  Finding  the  depart 
ment  in  confusion,  he  brought  order  out  of  chaos,  and  estab 
lished  system.  A  former  officer  of  the  great  Napoleon  was 
impressed  with  the  resemblance  between  Calhoun's  plan  of 
army  organization  and  that  of  the  Corsican.2  Even  his 
friends  were  agreeably  astonished  at  his  aptitude  for  or- 
ganzation  and  general  executive  duties.  And  this  furthered 
his  presidential  plans,  and  a  strong  party  in  the  Congress 
perfected  plans  to  advance  him  to  the  White  House  on  the 
expiration  of  Monroe's  term. 

It  is  not  now  fashionable  to  think  of  him  as  a  designing  and 
ambitious  politician,  but  one  of  his  biographers  has  com 
mented  on  his  tendency  to  stoop  "to  cover  with  an  approv 
ing  and  admiring  smile  a  resentment  which  is  lurking  in  the 
corner  of  his  heart,  and  on  the  other  side  to  break  off  all  social 
intercourse  with  old  and  highly  respected  associates,  merely 

1  Ritchie,  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer. 

8  General  Bernard,  chief  of  staff  of  the  engineers. 


90    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

because  others  whose  services  he  wished  to  secure  might  not 
like  these  connections."  l  And  yet,  despite  his  efforts,  his 
candidacy  appears  to  have  made  no  impression  upon  the 
country.  Among  the  publicists  he  was  strong;  but  the  people 
were  not  impressed.  He  was  the  original  "young  man's  can 
didate,"  but  this  weakened  him  among  the  older  and  more 
important  leaders.  "His  age,  or  rather  his  youth,"  wrote 
one,2  "at  the  present  moment  is  a  formidable  objection  to  his 
elevation  to  the  chair."  Nevertheless,  placing  his  reliance  on 
the  younger  element,  he  pushed  on.  Even  in  Massachusetts 
he  was  charged  with  having  "newspapers  set  up"  to  support 
him.3  Certain  it  is  that  Webster  favored  his  election  as  long 
as  it  seemed  possible  of  achievement,  and  when  failure  there 
seemed  certain,  the  greatest  of  his  future  rivals  earnestly 
urged  his  election  to  the  Vice-Presidency.4  To  the  latter  posi 
tion  he  was  elected  through  a  combination  of  the  friends  of 
Adams  and  Jackson. 

And  now  we  find  the  presidential  fever  consuming  him.  He 
becomes  the  practical,  scheming,  not  overly  scrupulous  poli 
tician  —  a  role  he  is  not  popularly  supposed  to  have  ever 
filled.  From  the  very  beginning  he  set  to  work  to  undermine 
the  Administration  of  his  chief.  His  apologists  explain  that 
when  the  "bargain"  story  was  advanced,  he  was  forced  to 
choose  between  the  two  factions  that  had  combined  to  elect 
him,  and  preferred  to  go  with  the  Jackson  forces.5  Whatever 
his  motive,  he  entered  into  no  half-hearted  opposition.  This 
notable  activity  against  Adams  and  in  favor  of  Jackson  has 
been  ascribed  to  a  presumptive  premonition  that  the  latter 
was  certain  to  reach  the  Presidency,  and,  in  view  of  Jackson's 
assurance  that  he  would  be  satisfied  with  one  term,  Calhoun 
calculated  that  the  defeat  of  Adams  would  shorten  his  period 

1  Von  Hoist,  58.  2  Joseph  Story. 

3  Adams's  Memoirs. 

4  Webster  wrote  to  his  brother:  "  I  hope  all  of  New  England  will  support  Mr. 
Calhoun  for  the  Vice-Presidency."   (Webster's  Correspondence.) 

6  Von  Hoist,  62-63. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN          91 

of  waiting  by  four  years.1  So  ardently  was  he  panting  for  the 
Presidency  at  this  time  that  he  summoned  his  friends  to 
assist  in  the  establishment  of  a  paper,  impatiently  brushed 
aside  the  objections  as  to  cost,  and  calling  Duff  Green  to  the 
editorship  of  the  "National  Telegraph,"  created  the  most 
powerful  party  organ  that  had  existed  in  this  country  up  to 
that  time.2  Less  than  a  year  after  Adams's  inauguration, 
Calhoun  was  actively  organizing  for  his  defeat.  We  find  him 
inviting  a  Philadelphian  to  his  chamber  in  the  Capitol  to  urge 
him  to  cooperate  with  the  Opposition  party  on  the  ground 
that  "because  of  the  manner  in  which  it  came  into  power  it 
must  be  defeated  at  all  hazards,  regardless  of  its  measures."  3 
This  insistence  on  the  defeat  of  the  Administration,  "regard 
less  of  its  measures,"  was  the  reasoning  of  an  ambitious  politi 
cian,  none  too  scrupulous,  in  a  pinch,  in  his  methods.  The 
rest  is  known  —  how  Calhoun  threw  his  influence  to  Jackson 
in  1828,  and  was  reflected  to  the  Vice-Presidency  with  the 
hero  of  the  Hermitage.  Close  students  of  the  period  are  now 
convinced  that  preliminary  to  this  alliance  an  agreement  had 
been  made  that  Calhoun  was  to  succeed  to  the  Presidency 
after  four  years. 

At  this  time  he  was  in  the  full  maturity  of  his  wonderful 
power,  and  the  future  must  have  seemed  secure.  Quincy, 
who  saw  him  about  this  time,  found  him  "a  striking  looking 
man,  with  thick  black  hair  brushed  back  defiantly,"  and  he 
comments  on  Calhoun's  policy  of  cultivating  and  fascinating 
all  young  men  visiting  the  National  capital.4  The  world  is 
too  familiar  with  the  tragic  features  of  the  great  Carolinian 
to  require  a  description.  The  rugged  carving,  the  low  broad 
brow,  the  spare  frame  almost  amounting  to  attenuation, 
the  penetrating  gaze  of  the  "glorious  pair  of  yellow-brown 
shining  eyes,"  the  bushy  brows  and  the  sunken  sockets  — 

1  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  108.  2  Ibid.,  109. 

3  Sargent  tells  of  his  interview  with  Joseph  McIIvaine,  Recorder  of  Philadelphia, 
I.  108. 

4  Quincy's  Figures  of  the  Past. 


92    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Calhoun  looked  unlike  any  other  man  in  history.1  He  was 
a  commanding  figure  at  the  time  of  the  quarrel  which  was  to 
-change  the  entire  course  of  his  life,  and  to  alter  his  political 
character. 

n 

WE  have  seen  that  Calhoun  was  annoyed  with  Jackson  over 
matters  of  patronage,  bu1|the  development  of  the  quarrel  to 
the  breaking  point  is  to  be  traced  in  the  story  of  a  debate  and 
two  dinners! 

While  it  has  not  been  customary  to  attach  any  party  signifi 
cance  to  the  Webster-Hayne  debate,  it  was  conducted  along 
party  lines  and  was  a  party  battle.  To  such  a  seasoned  ob 
server  of  parliamentary  fights  as  Thomas  H.  Benton,  it  was 
little  more  than  a  party  skirmish.2  Even  Webster,  at  the 
time,  evidently  looked  upon  Hayne's  assault  upon  him  as 
political  in  its  character.  Some  time  before  he  had  sent  Sena 
tor  White  of  Florida  to  Calhoun  to  warn  him  that  by  permit 
ting  his  friends  to  attack  New  England,  he  was  playing  into 
the  hands  of  Van  Buren,  who  would  capture  New  England 
States  that  would  otherwise  go  to  the  South  Carolinian.  And 
Calhoun,  no  less  alive  to  the  political  significance  of  the  prom 
ised  fight,  had,  according  to  White's  story  to  Adams,  been 
impressed.  "He  said  Calhoun  seemed  to  be  considerably  at  a 
loss  what  to  do,"  wrote  Adams  at  the  time;  "that  he  did  not 
know  what  things  were  coming  to;  that  he  had  no  feeling  of 
unfriendliness  to  me,  and  would  by  now  have  visited  me  but 
for  fear  of  being  misrepresented;  that  if  I  had  consulted  him 
four  years  ago,  and  not  have  appointed  Clay  Secretary  of 
State,  I  should  now  have  been  President  of  the  United 
States."  3  This  purported  warning  of  Webster  to  Calhoun  is 

1  Jefferson  Davis  in  his  Memoirs  describes  Calhoun's  eyes  as  "yellow-brown," 
while  his  contemporary  biographer,  Jenkins,  tells  us  they  were  dark  blue.  It  seems 
unlikely  that  Davis,  who  knew  him  well,  could  have  been  mistaken. 

2  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  13-40. 
*  Adams's  Memoirs,  Feb.  28, 1830. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN          93 

given  color  by  the  former's  action  during  his  great  speech,  in 
turning  his  fine  black  eyes  upon  the  latter,  in  the  chair,  while 
quoting: 

"A  barren  sceptre  in  their  gripe 
Thence  to  be  wrenched  by  an  unlineal  hand, 
No  son  of  their's  succeeding  " 

—  a  prophecy  said  to  have  caused  Calhoun  to  "change  ex 
pression  and  show  some  agitation." 1 

Whether  the  attack  on  Webster  and  New  England  was  con 
ceived  for  the  purpose  of  serving  a  party  or  sectional  end,  the 
records  show  that  the  Administration  leaders  who  partici 
pated  in  the  debate,  Grundy,  White,  and  Livingston,  fol 
lowed  the  Webster-Hayne  exchange  with  elaborate  indict 
ments  of  New  England  Federalism,  and  John  Forsyth,  the 
real  floor  leaderjjf  the  Administration,  while  contributing  lit 
tle  to  the  discussion,  was  notably  busy  upon  the  floor.  That 
the  party  phase  was  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  politicians 
and  the  press  immediately  following  the  verbal  duel  of  the 
giants  may  be  deduced  from  the  nature  of  the  press  com 
ments.  One  paper,  having  a  correspondent  at  the  capital, 
summed  up  the  result:  "The  opposition  party  generally  con 
tend  that  Mr.  Webster  overthrew  Mr.  Hayne;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  result  is  triumphantly  hailed  by  the  friends 
of  the  Administration  as  a  decisive  victory  over  the  eastern 
giant."  2  And  in  keeping  with  the  theory  that  the  mass  at 
tack  on  New  England  Federalism  was  to  capture  that  section 
for  the  Administration,3  we  find  the  speech  of  Hayne  being 
extensively  circulated  over  the  New  England  States.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Webster  literally  dragged  in  the  really 
great  issue  of  the  Union,  that  Hayne  was  forced  to  accept 
that  diversion,  and  by  so  doing  gave  to  the  debate  its  im 
mortal  character.  Jackson  was  delighted  with  Hayne's  first 

1  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress.  a  Philadelphia  Gazette. 

3  March's  idea. 


94    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

speech,  and  interested  in  the  second,  but  on  a  more  mature 
consideration  Webster's  glowing  defense  of  the  Union  went 
home  to  the  old  patriot  at  the  White  House.  It  is  because  of 
the  effect  of  the  debate  upon  Jackson's  Administration,  and 
not  merely  because  it  occurred  during  his  Presidency,  that  we 
cannot  dismiss  it  as  remote  from  the  party  politics  of  the 
time. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Daniel  Webster  who 
emerged  from  the  debate  was  not  the  same  public  character 
who  had  entered  it.  By  that  epochal  utterance  he  obliterated 
the  one  vulnerable  point  in  his  career  — for  the  Daniel  Webster 
of  1829  was  vulnerable.  He  entered  politics  in  New  Hamp 
shire  as  a  Federalist  —  "liberal  Federalist,"  to  use  the  phrase 
of  his  biographer.1  Notwithstanding  this  "liberality,"  he 
was  to  become  considerably  smirched  by  party  loyalty  dur 
ing  the  war  with  England.  This  war  was  the  occasion  for  his 
first  public  utterance,  when,  on  July  4,  1812,  he  bitterly  de 
nounced  the  war  with  true  Federalistic  fervor  at  Portsmouth. 
This  speech,  printed  and  circulated  for  propaganda  purposes 
against  the  war,  ran  into  two  editions,  and  led  to  his  selection 
as  a  delegate  to  the  notorious  Rockingham  County  mass 
meeting.  Here  it  fell  to  him  to  prepare  the  address  known  to 
history  as  the  "Rockingham  Memorial"  to  which  the  advo 
cates  of  the  sinister  doctrine  of  Nullification  pointed  approv 
ingly  up  to  the  Civil  War.  The  notoriety  of  this  document 
resulted  in  his  election  to  Congress,  where  his  record  was 
everything  it  should  not  have  been. 

His  first  move  was  to  heckle  the  President  by  calling  upon 
him  for  information  as  to  the  time  and  manner  of  the  repeal 
of  the  French  decrees  —  which  was  in  line  with  his  previous 
denunciation  of  France.  The  enemies  of  the  War  of  1812 
were  bitter  against  the  French,  just  as  the  enemies  of  the 
World  War,  over  a  century  later,  were  bitter  against  the 
English.  And  while  his  country  was  at  war  with  a  powerful 

1  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN    95 

foe,  he  voted  against  taxes  necessary  for  the  waging  of  it; 
fought  the  compulsory  draft  of  men  for  the  miserable  little 
army  on  the  ground  that  the  States  alone  had  the  right  to  re 
sort  to  conscription;  and  even  threatened  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  with  the  suggestion  that  "it  would  be  the  solemn 
duty  of  the  State  Governments  to  protect  their  authority 
over  their  own  State  militia,  and  to  interpose  between  their 
citizens  and  arbitrary  power."  He  stubbornly  resisted  the 
attempt  to  extend  martial  law  to  all  citizens  suspected  of 
treason;  actually  declaimed  against  the  bill  to  encourage  en 
listments;  opposed  the  war  policy  of  the  war  Administration 
and  urged  a  defensive  warfare.  And,  of  course,  he  intemper- 
ately  denounced  the  embargo. 

This  course  made  him  by  long  odds  the  most  conspicuous 
Federalist  in  the  House,  and  while  he  opposed  the  Hartford 
Convention,  he  does  not  appear  to  have  looked  upon  it  as 
seditious  or  treasonable,  and  as  late  as  1820,  in  his  Boston 
speech,  utterly  ignored  by  his  biographers,  he  practically  pro 
claimed  the  right  of  secession.  In  brief,  throughout  the  sec 
ond  war  against  England  he  was  found  just  on  the  safe  side 
of  the  line  of  sedition.  His  position  at  the  time  was  notorious, 
and  Isaac  Hill,  in  the  "New  Hampshire  Patriot,"  was  openly 
accusing  him  of  trying  to  dissolve  the  Union  and  to  array  the 
North  against  the  South. 

Thus,  the  Webster  that  Hayne  assailed  had  skeletons  in  his 
closet.  His  reputation  as  an  orator  was  greater  than  that  of 
any  living  American.  Behind  him  was  his  Plymouth  Oration 
which  had  rivaled  Washington  Irving  as  a  best  seller;1  his 
Dartmouth  College  plea,  which  had  moved  John  Marshall  to 
tears;  his  Bunker  Hill  Address,  which  had  been  read  with 
avidity  in  England  and  translated  into  French;  and  his  plea 
for  Greek  independence,  which  had  been  read  all  over  the 
world.  Such  was  the  Daniel  Webster  who  was  challenged  by 
Hayne  —  or  the  Democrats  —  or  the  Administration. 

1  Lodge's  Life  of  Webster,  118. 


96    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Robert  Y.  Hayne  was  a  knight  of  Southern  chivalry,  who 
in  youth,  like  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  had  studied 
oratory  as  an  art,  from  his  first  boyhood  triumph  moving 
with  dash  and  audacity  to  his  destiny,  and  at  thirty-two  en 
tered  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.1  His  reputation  as  an 
orator  previous  to  the  great  debate  promised  that  the  contest 
would  not  be  one-sided.  His  character  as  man  and  publicist 
commanded  universal  respect  and  even  the  affection  of 
political  friend  and  foe  alike.2  And  he  entered  the  contest 
with  one  distinct  advantage  over  his  adversary :  there  were 
skeletons  in  Webster's  closet;  there  were  none  in  Hayne's. 

Ill 

THERE  is  no  doubt  but  that  on  the  day  Hayne  opened  his  at 
tack,  he  was  in  fine  fettle.  Never  had  the  Senate  Chamber 
presented  a  more  inspiring  scene.  Before  him,  with  folded 
arms,  sat  the  most  coveted  prey  in  the  covey  of  the  Opposi 
tion.  From  the  Vice-President's  chair,  Calhoun,  the  god  of 
his  idolatry,  encouraged  him  with  the  compliment  of  a  happy 
expression. ' About  him  were  grouped  the  prominent  "Jack 
son  Senators  "  ready  to  encourage  him  with  their  approving 
smiles.3  There  was  a  gallant  and  confident  air  in  the  orator 
as  he  "dashed  into  the  debate  like  a  Mameluke  cavalry  upon 
a  charge."  4  In  a  moment  he  was  in  the  full  swing  of  his  elo 
quence,  and,  as  he  poured  forth  his  sarcasm,  and  marshaled 
his  facts  against  the  Federalism  of  New  England,  and  threw 
wide  the  door  revealing  the  Webster  skeletons  in  the  closet, 
the  realization  was  borne  to  all  that  they  were  listening  to 
one  of  the  most  effective  speeches  ever  heard  in  the  Senate. 

1  Senator  Foote,  in  A  Casket  of  Reminiscences,  34-36,  describes  his  early  struggles 
to  overcome  defects  in  enunciation,  and  Ludwig  Lewisohn,  in  his  History  of  Litera 
ture  in  South  Carolina,  refers  to  his  first  oratorical  triumph. 

2  March,  an  idolater  of  Webster,  in  his  Reminiscences  of  Congress,  is  almost 
extravagant  in  his  praise,  and  Benton,  in  his  Thirty  Years'  View,  is  even  more 
complimentary. 

8  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  172. 
4  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN    97 

The  Democrats  were  jubilant  —  the  enemy  concerned  — 
Webster  was  a  mask,  as  unresponsive  as  the  sphinx.  The 
blows  at  Federalism  —  at  New  England  —  at  Webster,  fell 
like  the  hammer  on  an  anvil.  The  speaker's  deadly  parallel 
on  Webster  and  his  tariff  record  was  a  superb  piece  of  clever 
oratory.  His  analysis  of  New  England  Federalism  in  the  War 
of  1812  was  a  stinging  indictment  —  it  was  a  conviction  and 
a  sentence. 

The  Democrats  and  Jackson  Senators  were  naturally  de 
lighted.  This  was  a  political  speech  that  Hayne  was  making, 
and  he  was  crucifying  Federalism  and  parading  the  closet 
skeletons  of  its  greatest  living  champion,  and  shaming  the 
section  that  refused  to  be  converted  to  the  new  faith.  And 
when  the  orator  fell  into  the  trap  cleverly  prepared  for  him  by 
Webster,  and,  ostentatiously  encouraged  by  Calhoun  with 
numerous  notes  of  suggestions  sent  by  the  pages  from  the 
chair,  entered  upon  his  exposition  of  the  theory  of  Nullifica 
tion,  it  is  improbable  that  the  delighted  Jackson  Senators 
caught  the  full  significance  of  the  departure.  Duff  Green,  in 
the  "National  Telegraph,"  the  Calhoun  organ,  then  support 
ing  the  Administration,  was  in  a  frenzy  of  delight.  Andrew 
Jackson,  who  had  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  debate,  send 
ing  Major  Lewis  daily  to  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  was  im 
mensely  pleased  with  the  political  or  party  features  of  the 
speech,  wrote  the  orator  a  cordial  letter  of  congratulation. 

The  depression  of  the  Federalists,  the  New  Englanders, 
and  the  Opposition  generally,  was  correspondingly  great.  A 
professional  observer, 1  writing  of  the  event  in  later  years,  tells 
us  that  "the  immediate  impression  from  the  speech  was  most 
assuredly  disheartening  to  the  cause  Mr.  Webster  upheld." 
And  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  accepts  the  statement  that  "men 
of  the  North  and  of  New  England  could  be  known  in  Wash 
ington  in  those  days  by  their  indignant  and  dejected  looks  and 
downcast  eyes."  2 

1  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress.  *  Lodge's  Life  of  Webster ,  177. 


98  PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

The  day  Webster  began  his  reply  was  the  coldest  of  the 
winter,  a  biting  wind  filling  the  streets  with  clouds  of  dust, 
and  Margaret  Bayard  Smith,  sitting  before  a  blazing  fire,, 
and  free  from  the  interruption  of  callers  because  "almost 
every  one  is  thronging  to  the  Capitol  to  hear  Mr.  Webster 
reply  to  Colonel  Hayne's  attack  on  him  and  his  party," 
wrote  regretfully  of  the  growing  tendency  of  women  to 
monopolize  the  seats  both  in  the  gallery  and  upon  the 
floor.1  The  reader  is  too  familiar  with  that  splendid  oration 
to  justify,  for  our  purposes,  any  analysis  or  extended  refer 
ence  to  the  substance.  iHis  replies  to  Hayne's  attacks  on  the 
war  policy  of  the  Federalists,  and  upon  his  own  inconsisten 
cies,  while  clever,  were  not,  in  truth,  convincing  answers  Jand 
it  was  upon  these  points  that  the  Jackson  Senators  were 
centering  their  attention.  Thus  it  is  not  remarkable  that 
the  full  import  of  his  speech  was  momentarily  lost  upon  the 
heated  partisans.  Even  Benton,  refusing  to  believe  that  the 
Union  was  in  danger,  or  in  any  way  involved  in  the  debate, 
did  not  care  for  Webster's  peroration,  finding  the  sentiment 
nobly  and  oratorically  expressed,  "but  too  elaborately  and 
too  artistically  composed  for  real  grief  in  the  presence  of  a 
great  calamity  —  of  which  calamity  I  saw  no  sign."  2  To 
Benton,  the  debate  was  a  party  combat  and  nothing  more. 
Nor  is  there  anything  in  the  notes  recorded  by  Adams  to 
indicate  that  he  was  impressed  with  the  Webster  speech 
except  as  a  defense  of  Federalism.3  The  party  issue  had,  for 
the  moment,  obscured  all  else.  If  in  Charleston,  the  home  of 
Hayne,  Webster  became  the  idol  of  the  old  Federalists,  and 
of  the  Democratic  mechanics,  Hayne  won  the  affectionate 
admiration  of  the  merchants  of  Boston,  who  had  his  speech 

1  First  Forty  Years,  310. 

2  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  142. 

3  Adams,  in  his  Memoirs,  refers  to  the  speech  as  "a  remarkable  instance  of  readi 
ness  in  debate  —  a  reply  of  at  least  four  hours  to  a  speech  of  equal  length.   It 
demolishes  the  whole  fabric  of  Hayne's  speech,  so  that  it  leaves  scarcely  a  wreck  to 
be  seen." 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN    99 

printed  on  satin  for  presentation  to  him.1  The  Democratic 
members  of  the  Legislature  of  Maine,  thinking  only  of  the 
denunciation  of  Federalism,  ordered  two  thousand  copies 
published  and  distributed  as  "a  fearless  unanswerable  defense 
of  the  Democracy  of  New  England"  —  showing  that  the 
Nullification  feature  was  overlooked  in  the  party  contest 
involved.  Some  contemporaries  thought  the  battle  a  draw. 
And  Jackson?  Parton  tells  us  that  Major  Lewis,  who  had 
been  stationed  in  the  Senate  during  the  debate,  on  returning 
from  the  Capitol  after  hearing  Webster,  found  Jackson  up 
and  eager  for  news.  On  being  told  that  the  New  England 
orator  had  made  a  powerful  speech  and  demolished  "our 
friend  Hayne,"  the  old  man  replied  that  he  "expected  it."  2 
A  few  days  later  the  full  import  of  Hayne's  speech  must  have 
dawned  upon  Jackson  and  his  political  intimates,  and  there 
is  significance  in  the  powerful  speech  'delivered  a  little  later 
in  the  debate  byEdward  Livingston,  Senator  from  Louisiana, 
intimate  friend  of  theTresMent;  who  was  destined  to  enter 
the  Cabinet  and  to  frame  Jackson's  immortal  challenge  to 
Nullification.  After  the  speeches  of  Webster  and  Hayne, 
thaTof  Livingston  stands  out  as  the  greatest  made  during 
the  prolonged  discussion.  He  attempted  again  to  center  the 
fire  on  Federalism,  and  in  so  doing  brilliantly  defended 
the  Union  against  Nullification,  and  vigorously  defended  the 
Jacksonian  policies  against  the  attacks  to  which  they  had 
been  subjected  during  the  remarkable  debate.  If  the  per 
sonal  views  of  Jackson  and  the  Administration  are  to  be 
sought  in  any  of  the  senatorial  speeches,  they  will  be  found, 
not  in  the  speech  of  Hayne,  but  in  that  of  Livingston,  which, 
for  that  reason,  is  entitled  to  more  consideration  from  his 
torians  than  it  has  received.  We  shall  now  see  that  within 
two  months  Jackson  was  to  find  a  way  to  say  the  last  word 
in  the  Great  Debate  of  1830. 

1  Letter  from  Washington  Alston  Hayne,  grandson,  to  Jervey,  Hayne's  biog 
rapher. 

2  Parton's  Life  of  Jackson. 


100    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

IV 

FOR  some  reason  the  Nullifiers  miscalculated  the  stern  old 
patriot  of  the  White  House.  Perhaps  it  was  his  opposition 
to  the  tariff;  possibly  his  South  Carolina  nativity  —  what 
ever  the  cause,  the  extreme  State  Rights  party  claimed  him 
as  its  own.  It  is  scarcely  probable  that,  previous  to  the  Web- 
ster-Hayne  debate,  Jackson  had  ever  given  any  serious  con 
sideration  to  the  danger  of  disunion,  and  most  probable  that 
the  views  advanced  by  Hayne  in  the  Nullification  part  of  his 
speech  first  impressed  him  with  the  fact  that  a  sinister  doc 
trine,  brilliantly  advanced  and  powerfully  supported,  was 
preparing  to  challenge  the  authority  of  the  Nation*/ But  he 
had  kept  his  own  counsels.  He  may  have  discusseer  the  dan 
ger  with  Livingston  or  Van  Buren,  but  no  public  announce 
ment  of  his  position  &ad  escaped  him  up  to  the  time  of  the 
Jefferson  dinner  in  the  April  following  the  Great  Debate.  This 
dinner,  it  is  now  reasonable  to  conclude,  had  been  arranged 
with  a  definite  object  in  view  —  to  create  the  impression 
that,  in  a  contest,  the  President  would  be  friendly  to  the 
doctrine  of  Calhoun  and  Hayne.  The  significance  of  the 
selection  of  Jefferson's  birthday  as  the  occasion  was  not  lost 
upon  the  President  or  his  Secretary  of  State.  It  was  the  first 
formal  observance  of  the  great  Virginian's  natal  day,  and 
among  the  leaders  in  the  preparations  were  some  "with 
whom  the  Virginia  principles  of  '98  had,  until  quite  recently, 
been  in  very  bad  odor."  *  It  was  clear  to  the  Red  Fox  that 
the  intent  was  "to  use  the  Virginia  model  as  a  mask  or  stalk 
ing  horse,  rather  than  as  an  armor  of  defense."  The  plan,  as 
it  developed,  was  to  undertake,  through  various  toasts  and 
their  responses,  to  associate  this  doctrine  with  Jeffersonian 
Democracy.  Of  the  twenty -four  toasts,  practically  every  one 
bore  upon  this  subject.  The  President,  Vice-President  Cal 
houn,  the  Cabinet  were  to  be  guests. 

1  Van  Buren's  Autobiography. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CAIjHOUN        101 

It  was  a  subscription  dinner,  and  outside  the  conspirators 
in  charge  the  purchasers  of  tickets  had  no  other  thought 
than  that  it  was  intended  solely  as  a  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  the  sage  of  Monticello. 

Talking  it  over  with  Van  Buren,  Jackson  soon  convinced 
himself  as  to  the  motive  of  the  conspirators.  By  prearrange- 
ment,  Van  Buren  met  Jackson  at  the  White  House,  in  the 
presence  only  of  Major  Donelson,  the  President's  secretary, 
to  determine  upon  the  attitude  to  be  taken  and  the  toasts  to 
be  proposed.  While  the  Nullifiers  were  jubilating  over  the 
promised  participation  of  the  President,  he  was  locked  in 
with  his  Secretary  of  State  deliberating  on  the  wisdom  of 
showing  by  his  toast  his  familiarity  with  the  purpose  of  the 
conspirators,  and  his  determination  to  preserve  the  Union 
at  all  hazards.  The  conferees  decided  upon  that  aggressive 
course,  and  the  toasts  were  framed  accordingly. 

"Thus  armed,"  wrote  Van  Buren  years  later,  "we  repaired 
to  the  dinner  with  feelings  on  the  part  of  the  Chief  akin  to 
those  which  would  have  animated  his  breast  if  the  scene  of 
this  preliminary  skirmish  in  defense  of  the  Union  had  been 
the  field  of  battle  instead  of  the  festive  board."  1  When  Ben- 
ton  arrived  that  night,  he  found  a  full  assemblage,  with  the 
guests  scattered  about  in  groups  excitedly  examining  the  list 
of  toasts,  and  discussing  their  significance.  The  congressional 
delegation  from  Pennsylvania,  on  scenting  the  conspiracy, 
left  the  hall  before  the  dinner  began.  Many  others,  not 
caring  to  associate  themselves  with  such  a  movement,  retired, 
thus  depriving  themselves  of  a  triumph.  But  many  re 
mained,  among  them  four  members  of  the  Cabinet,  Van 
Buren,  Eaton,  Branch,  and  Barry.  During  the  toasts,  which 
were  so  numerous  and  lengthy  that  they  required  eleven 
columns  in  the  "National  Telegraph,"  Jackson  sat  stern  and 
impassive,  betraying  nothing  of  his  intention.  At  length,  the 
regular  toasts  given,  the  volunteer  toasts  were  called  for, 

1  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  414. 


102    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  Jackson  rose.  As  he  did  so,  Van  Buren,  who  was  short 
in  stature,  stood  on  his  chair  to  observe  the  effect  better.1 
Straightening  himself  to  his  full  height,  and  fixing  Calhoun 
with  his  penetrating  eye,  he  paused  a  moment,  and  then, 
following  the  hush,  proposed  the  most  dramatic  and  histori 
cal  toast  in  American  history: 

Federal  Union:  It  must  and  shall  be  preserved.3 
ere  was  no  possible  misunderstanding  of  the  meanfl 
From  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  the  Webster  speech  the 
value  of  the  Union  had  been  discussed  with  a  disconcerting 
freedom  of  expression.  The  rumor  was  afloat  in  the  capital 
that  Calhoun  had  sinister  designs,  and  proposed  to  place 
himself  at  the  head  of  a  disloyal  movement  of  the  extreme 
State  Rights  men.  The  toasts  of  the  evening  had  told  their 
tale  of  the  dinner  conspiracy.IAnd  Jackson's  brief,  meaning 
ful  sentence  cut  like  a  knife.  (It  was  something  more  than  a 
toast  —  it  was  a  presidential  proclamation! 

Without  a  word  more,  Jackson  lifted  his  glass  as  a  sign  that 
the  toast  was  to  be  drunk  standing.  Calhoun  rose  with 
the  rest.  "His  glass  trembled  in  his  hand  and  a  little  of  the 
amber  fluid  trickled  down  the  side."  3  There  was  no  re 
sponse.  Jackson  stood  there,  silent  and  impassive  —  clearly 
the  master  of  the  situation.  All  hilarity  had  gone.  Jackson 
left  his  place,  and,  going  to  the  far  end  of  the  room,  engaged 
Benton  in  conversation,  but  not  upon  the  subject  of  the 
dinner. 

1  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  415. 

2  Van  Buren  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  the  President,  who  had  prepared 
the  toast  as  given  in  the  text,  really  gave  it  —  "Our  Union  —  it  must  be  preserved," 
and  that  Hayne  left  his  seat  and  hastened  to  him  to  beg  him  to  insert  the  word  "  Fed 
eral."  "This,"  says  Van  Buren, "  was  an  ingenuous  suggestion,  as  it  seemed  to  make 
the  rebuke  less  pungent,  although  it  really  had  no  such  effect.  The  President  cheer 
fully  assented  because,  in  point  of  fact,  the  addition  only  made  the  toast  what  he 
originally  designed  it  to  be  —  he  having  rewritten  it  in  the  bustle  and  excitement  of 
the  occasion,  on  the  back  of  the  list  of  regular  toasts  which  had  been  laid  before  him, 
instead  of  using  the  copy  in  his  pocket,  and  having  omitted  that  word  inadver 
tently."   (Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  415). 

*  Isaac  Hill's  description. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN        103 

en  all  were  seated,  Calhoun,  who  had  remained  stand- 
ig,  slowly  and  hesitatingly  proposed :  j 

"The  Union:  next  to  our  liberty,  the  most  dear.'i 

Then,  after  a  pause  of  half  a  minute,  he  proceeded  in  such 
a  fashion  as  to  leave  doubt  as  to  whether  the  concluding 
sentence  was  a  part  of  the  toast,  or  a  brief  speech : 

"May  we  all  remember  that  it  can  only  be  preserved  by  re 
specting  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  by  distributing  equal!; 
the  benefits  and  burdens  of  the  Union." 

Within  five  minutes  after  Calhoun  had  resumecf  his 
seat,  the  company  of  more  than  a  hundred  had  dwindled  to 
thirty  —  men  fled  from  the  room  as  from  the  scene  of  a 
battle. 

The  story  of  that  Jacksonian  toast  spread  over  the  coun 
try,  justifying,  as  Ben  ton  admits  he  then  realized,  the  perora 
tion  of  Webster's  speech,  and  proclaiming  to  the  people  the 
existence  of  a  conspiracy  against  the  Union,  and  the  deter 
mination  of  Jackson  to  preserve  it  at  all  cost.  That  toast 
made  history.  Jit  marked  the  definite  beginning  of  the  his 
tory-making  quarrel  of  Jackson  and  Calhoun,  and  the  be 
ginning  of  the  exodus  from  the  Democratic  or  Jacksonian 
party  of  the  Nullifiers  and  Disunionists,  who  were  to  be 
warmly  welcomed  by  Clay  into  the  party  he  was  about  to 
create  to  wage  war  on  the  Jackson  Administration  | 

V 

ANOTHER  dinner  was  to  complete  the  break  of  Calhoun  and 
Jackson. 

'  In  the  spring  of  1830,  President  Jackson  gave  a  dinner 
at  the  White  House  in  honor  of  former  President  Monroe. 
During  the  evening,  while  the  President  and  his  predecessor 
were  engaged  in  animated  conversation  concerning  the  days 
when  the  latter  was  in  the  White  House  and  the  former  in  the 
field  in  Florida,  Finch  Ringgold,  marshal  of  the  District, 
turned  to  Major  Lewis  with  the  observation  that  Calhoun 


104    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

had  been  an  enemy  of  the  President  in  relation  to  his  Florida 
campaign.  It  was  not,  however,  a  revelation  to  Lewis  at  the 

Ltime. 
During  Jackson's  first  successful  fight  for  the  Presidency, 
the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  was  celebrated, 
with  Jackson  as  the  guest  of  honor.  James  A.  Hamilton  had 
participated  in  the  celebration  as  the  representative  of  the 
Tammany  Society  of  New  York;  and,  joining  the  Jackson 
party  at  the  Hermitage,  had  accompanied  it  to  New  Orleans. 
During  the  conversation  en  route,  there  was  some  discussion 
of  the  charges  that  had  been  made  against  Jackson  in  the 
presidential  contest  of  four  years  before  relative  to  his  con- 
»  duct  in  the  Seminole  War,  and  the  assertion  had  been  made 
that  Crawford,  a  member  of  Monroe's  Cabinet,  had  urged 
his  arrest.  It  was  expected  that  a  similar  attack  would  be 
made  in  the  campaign  then  beginning.  Learning  that  Ham 
ilton  expected  to  return  by  way  of  Georgia,  Major  Lewis 
requested  him  to  visit  Crawford,  then  living  in  retirement 
there,  and  ascertain  just  what  had  occurred  in  the  Cabinet 
meeting.  The  motive  of  Lewis  was  to  arm  himself,  if  possible, 
to  repel  the  attack,  and  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between 
Jackson  and  the  Georgian.  Finding  on  his  arrival  in  Georgia 
that  to  reach  the  home  of  Crawford  he  would  be  forced  to 
go  seventy  miles  out  of  his  way,  Hamilton  requested  John 
Forsyth  to  ascertain  from  Crawford  "whether  the  propriety 
or  necessity  for  arresting  or  trying  General  Jackson  was  ever 
presented  as  a  question  for  the  deliberation  of  Mr.  Monroe's 
Cabinet."  *  Passing  through  Washington  on  his  way  home, 
Hamilton  spent  two  days  in  the  same  house  with  Calhoun, 
and  frankly  made  inquiry  of  him  also.  The  latter  answered 
with  an  emphatic  negative.  The  impression  Hamilton  re 
ceived  from  the  conversation  was  that  Calhoun  had  been 
favorable  to  Jackson  and  Crawford  hostile.  On  reaching 
New  York  he  wrote  Major  Lewis  of  his  inability  to  see  Craw- 

1  Hamilton  to  Forsyth.  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  369. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN        105 

ford  and  of  his  conversation  with  Calhoun.  The  reply  of  the 
Major  shows  conclusively  that,  up  to  this  time,  there  was  not 
the  slightest  suspicion  that  Calhoun  had  been  unfriendly  to 
Jackson,  and  the  sole  impression  made  upon  Lewis  by  Ham 
ilton's  letter  was  that,  since  the  subject  of  arresting  or  repri 
manding  Jackson  had  not  been  broached  in  the  Cabinet,  a 
grave  injustice  had  been  done  the  Georgian  which  ought  to 
be  righted.  Soon  afterwards,  Hamilton  heard  from  Forsyth 
to  the  effect  that  Crawford  informed  him  that  in  a  meeting 
of  the  Cabinet  Calhoun  had  urged  the  propriety  of  arresting 
and  trying  Jackson.1  Very  soon  after  the  receipt  of  Forsyth's 
amazing  letter,  Hamilton  received  a  note  from  Calhoun, 
suggesting  the  impropriety  of  disclosures  as  to  Cabinet  pro 
ceedings  and  asking  that  no  use  be  made  of  his  name.  Realiz 
ing  now  the  serious  possibilities  of  a  complete  airing  of  the 
old  controversy,  Hamilton  filed  Forsyth's  letter  away  and 
mentioned  it  to  no  one.  For  eighteen  months  this  letter  was 
undisturbed.  Then,  in  the  autumn  of  1829,  when  Major 
Lewis  was  his  guest  in  his  New  York  home,  some  evil  spirit 
impelled  Hamilton  to  show  the  letter  to  Jackson's  intimate 
who  dwelt  with  him  in  the  White  House.  Lewis  made  no 
disclosure  until  after  the  Monroe  dinner.  In  the  meanwhile, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  relations  between  Jackson  and  Calhoun 
had  become  strained,  and  the  Major  convinced  himself  that, 
since  the  fight  was  inevitable,  his  idol  should  be  furnished 
with  all  available  ammunition.  In  telling  him  of  Ringgold's 
statement  at  the  dinner,  Lewis  added  that  it  was  supported 
by  the  revelations  of  the  Forsyth  letter,  and  Jackson  de 
manded  the  fatal  note. 

On  learning  of  Jackson's  demand,  Forsyth  took  the  pre 
caution  first  to  send  a  copy  of  his  letter  to  Hamilton  to  Craw 
ford  for  verification  in  writing,  or  for  such  corrections  as  the 
facts  might  necessitate.  The  reply,  with  a  minor  correction, 

1  This  he  afterwards  amended  to  the  extent  of  saying  that  Calhoun  had  urged 
a  reprimand  of  some  sort. 


106    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

together  with  the  Forsyth  letter  to  Hamilton,  were  thereupon 
turned  over  to  Jackson. 

The  effect  on  the  President  was  to  infuriate  him.  Setting 
his  jaws,  he  wrote  a  sharp  note  to  Calhoun  demanding  an 
explanation.  This  was  the  beginning  of  one  of  the  most 
acrimonious  controversies  in  American  politics. 

VI 

WITH  Crawford  as  the  witness  against  Calhoun,  it  is  essential 
to  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  career  of  this  remarkable  and 
singularly  unfortunate  statesman.  No  student  of  the  period, 
not  poisoned  by  the  prejudices  and  jealousies  of  Adams,  who 
filled  the  pages  of  his  diary  with  grotesque  caricatures  of  his 
rivals,  can  escape  the  conclusion  that  William  H.  Crawford 
was  one  of  the  purest  and  ablest  statesmen  of  his  day.  At  the 
time  he  entered  the  Senate,  in  his  thirty-fifth  year,  he  was 
a  splendid  figure  —  handsome,  virile,  magnetic,  independent 
in  thought,  and  audacious  in  action.  He  was  the  great  war 
leader  in  the  Senate,  as  was  Calhoun  in  the  House.  He  had 
made  the  most  profound  impression  on  the  business  men  of 
the  Nation  of  any  publicist  since  Hamilton  by  his  fight  for 
strict  governmental  economy,  for  the  scrutinizing  of  all  ex 
penditures,  and  by  his  championship  of  the  National  Bank 
in  a  brilliant  and  exhaustive  speech  in  reply  to  Clay.  After 
two  years  as  Minister  to  France,  Madison  called  him  into  his 
Cabinet  to  unravel  the  hopeless  tangle  in  the  War  Depart 
ment.  He  served  as  adviser  to  Madison  during  the  remain 
der  of  his  Administration,  continued  as  the  official  adviser 
of  Monroe  through  the  eight  years  of  his  Presidency,  and  was 
urged  by  Adams  to  continue  in  a  similar  capacity  under  him. 
He  was  soon  transferred  from  the  War  Department  to  the 
Treasury,  where  he  served  for  nine  years  to  the  complete 
satisfaction  of  the  business  men  of  the  Republic. 

Even  as  early  as  the  close  of  the  Madison  Administration, 
a  powerful  element,  opposed  to  the  precedent  which  pointed 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN        107 

to  Monroe  for  the  succession,  centered  on  Crawford.  Numer 
ous  newspapers  strongly  urged  his  election,  offers  of  support 
poured  in  upon  him,  and  had  he  at  that  time  entered  actively 
into  the  plans  of  his  friends,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
he  would  have  been  chosen.  When  the  Congress  convened, 
the  majority  favored  his  candidacy.  The  caucus  was  post 
poned.  The  Administration  put  forth  its  utmost  exertions 
for  Monroe.  Crawford  remained  inactive.  And  when  he 
definitely  put  his  claims  aside,  a  number  of  his  friends  refused 
to  participate  in  the  caucus,  in  which,  notwithstanding  his 
own  lack  of  interest  and  the  prestige  of  the  Administration, 
Monroe  was  barely  nominated  by  a  vote  of  65  to  54  for 
Crawford. 

The  Cabinet  of  Monroe  was  so  constituted  as  to  make  it  a 
house  divided  three  ways  against  itself.  Adams,  Calhoun, 
and  Crawford  were  all  members,  all  were  presidential  candi 
dates,  and  none  had  a  clearer  right  to  aspire  to  the  succession 
than  the  one  who  had  lacked  only  twelve  votes  of  the  nomi 
nation  in  1816.  The  three-cornered  fight  began  in  earnest 
as  early  as  1821.  With  Adams,  Crawford's  relations  were  far 
from  friendly,  as  we  may  judge  from  the  numerous  vindic 
tive  comments  in  the  former's  diary.  Between  Crawford 
and  Jackson  no  love  was  lost,  and  we  find  the  Georgian 
writing  to  a  correspondent  of  Jackson's  "depravity  and  vin- 
dictiveness."  *  But  Calhoun  was  to  prove  the  most  unscru 
pulous  and  hostile  of  his  foes. 

It  was  not  unknown  to  Crawford  that  Calhoun  had  ear 
nestly  sought  the  alienation  of  his  supporters  at  the  time  of 
Monroe's  election.  And,  as  the  election  of  1824  approached, 
Calhoun's  personal  organ  at  the  capital  became  intemperate 
in  its  attacks  upon  him.  But  the  climax,  involving  Calhoun, 
was  reached  in  the  spring  of  1824,  when  the  "A.  B."  papers 
appeared  in  Calhoun  journals,  followed  by  a  formal  charge 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  filed  by  Ninian  Edwards 

1  Letter  to  Judge  Tait,  Shipp's  Life  of  William  H.  Crawford,  152. 


108     PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

of  Illinois,  alleging  irregularities  and  misconduct  in  office 
against  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Here  we  have  the 
issue  direct  between  Calhoun,  seldom  accused  of  being  an 
unscrupulous  intriguer,  and  Crawford,  against  whom  history 
has  lodged  the  charge.  The  connection  between  Calhoun  and 
the  attack  appears  clear  enough.  Edwards  was  Calhoun's 
friend.  The  paper  that  published  the  "A.  B."  papers  was 
Calhoun's  paper  and  was  edited  by  a  clerk  in  Calhoun's  office. 

Immediately  after  making  the  charges,  Edwards  was 
appointed  Minister  to  Mexico  —  on  the  recommendation  of 
Adams,  Secretary  of  State.  During  the  two  weeks  previous 
to  Edwards 's  departure  for  his  post,  Calhoun  made  almost 
daily  visits  to  his  room  in  a  lodging-house,  spending  from  one 
to  two  hours  with  him  on  each  occasion.1  Nor  does  Adams, 
judger  of  men  and  motives,  appear  entirely  free  from  com 
plicity  in  view  of  his  efforts  to  dissuade  Monroe  from  sum 
moning  Edwards  back  to  Washington  to  testify  in  the  inves 
tigation  ordered  by  the  House  on  the  demand  of  Crawford. 
The  investigation  disclosed  that  Edwards  was  a  liar,  and  the 
committee,  including  Webster,  Livingston,  and  Randolph, 
unanimously  reported  that  "nothing  has  been  proved  to 
impeach  the  integrity  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  or  to 
bring  into  doubt  the  general  correctness  and  ability  of  his 
administration  of  the  public  finances." 

There  is  ample  justification  for  the  conclusion  that  Cal 
houn  was  directly  implicated  in  an  unscrupulous  attempt  to 
blacken  the  reputation  of  a  rival,  and  that  Adams  shared 
with  him  in  the  earnest  desire  that  the  investigation  should 
be  postponed  until  after  the  presidential  election. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  contest  everything  indicated 
Crawford's  triumph.  Then  Tragedy  intervened.  As  a  result 
of  the  administering  of  lobelia  by  an  unskilled  physician, 
Crawford  suffered  a  stroke.  For  a  time  he  lost  both  sight  and 

1  Crawford  in  his  letter  to  Calhoun  quotes  Senator  Noble  of  Indiana,  who  lived  in 
the  same  lodging-house  with  Edwards,  to  this  effect.  Shipp's  Life  of  Crawford,  247. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN     ,  109 

the  power  of  speech.  His  nervous  system  was  shattered.  He 
lost  the  use  of  his  lower  limbs.  But  such  is  the  pull  of  an 
overshadowing  ambition  that  even  in  this  plight  he  refused 
to  withdraw  from  the  race.  The  Opposition  press  was  not 
above  exaggerating  his  condition.  And  at  such  a  time  the 
caucus  was  held.  The  galleries  were  packed,  but  the  attend 
ance  on  the  floor  was  slight.  Out  of  the  261  members,  only 
68  were  present,  the  friends  of  Calhoun,  Adams,  Clay,  and 
Jackson  having  reached  an  agreement  not  to  enter  the 
caucus.  Thus  the  contest  was  thrown  into  the  House,  where 
Clay  went  over  to  Adams  and  elected  him. 

There  are  few  more  poignant  pictures  associated  with  the 
failure  of  lofty  political  ambitions  than  that  in  the  country 
home  of  the  Georgian  where  he  sat  with  his  family  about  the 
blazing  fire,  awaiting  the  news  from  the  Capitol.1  His  reputa 
tion  had  been  dishonestly  assailed,  his  health  was  broken,  his 
fortune  was  gone,  and,  after  having  almost  touched  the 
Presidency,  he  calmly  awaited  the  final  word  of  failure.  The 
daughters,  who  adored  him,  in  their  efforts  to  soften  the 
expected  blow,  told  him  of  their  joyous  dreams  of  a  return  to 
"Woodlawn,"  the  Georgia  country  home,  where  all  could  be 
much  happier.  When  the  expected  messenger  arrived  and 
announced  the  election  of  Adams,  the  defeated  statesman, 
without  a  change  of  tone  or  countenance,  merely  remarked 
that  he  thought  it  would  be  Jackson.  The  next  day  a  letter 
from  the  new  President  urged  him  to  continue  in  the  Cabinet, 
Jackson  called,  "frank,  courteous,  and  almost  cordial,"  and 
a  little  later  Thomas  Jefferson  wrote  his  frank  regrets.2  And 
thus,  having  declined  the  Adams  invitation,  after  a  remark 
able  career  in  the  service  of  his  country,  William  H.  Craw 
ford,  poorer  than  the  day  he  entered  public  life,  and  physi 
cally  a  wreck,  returned  to  "Woodlawn"  in  its  magnificent 

1  Crawford's  Washington  country  home  was  situated  near  Thomas  Circle,  five 
blocks  from  the  Willard  Hotel,  and  all  beyond  was  farmlands. 

2  The  scene  at  the  Crawford  home  is  elaborately  described  by  an  eye-witness  in 
Shipp's  biography  of  Crawford. 


110    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

oak  forest,  with  its  charming,  winding  driveways,  with  its 
peach  and  apple  blossoms,  and  its  gardens  and  its  shrubbery. 
And  here  under  an  ancient  oak  he  was  to  sit  for  many  eve 
nings  with  his  children  and  his  friends.  That  he  sometimes 
thought  over  the  lost  hope,  we  may  be  sure;  that  he  often 
associated  it  with  Calhoun,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

vn 

THE  first  act  of  Jackson's,  on  being  told  of  Calhoun 's  hos 
tility  in  the  Monroe  Cabinet,  was  to  call  for  a  copy  of  Craw 
ford's  letter  to  Forsyth,  and  to  enclose  it  in  a  letter  to  the 
Vice-President,  expressing  his  surprise  and  asking  for  his  ver 
sion.  The  next  development  in  the  controversy  came  in  the 
form  of  a  long  letter  from  Calhoun,  practically  admitting  the 
charge,  and  elaborately  condemning  and  damning  Crawford 
for  the  betrayal  of  a  Cabinet  secret.  This  reply  was  delivered 
to  Jackson  on  a  Sunday  on  his  way  to  church,  and  he  wrote 
a  brief  and  significant  answer  on  his  return  to  the  White 
House  on  the  same  day.  The  closing  words  sealed  the  doom 
of  Calhoun  as  far  as  the  Presidency  was  concerned.  "In  your 
and  Mr.  Crawford's  dispute  I  have  no  interest  whatever,"  he 
wrote.  "But  it  may  become  necessary  for  me  hereafter,  when 
I  shall  have  more  leisure  and  the  documents  at  hand,  to 
notice  the  historical  facts  and  references  in  your  communica 
tion  —  which  will  give  a  very  different  view  to  the  subject. 
Understanding  you  now,  no  further  communication  with  you 
on  this  subject  is  necessary." 

About  this  time  he  sent  Calhoun's  letter  to  Van  Buren, 
who  refused  to  read  it,  explaining  that  he  would  be  accused 
of  fomenting  the  trouble  and  preferred  to  know  nothing 
about  it.  When  the  messenger  returned  to  Jackson  with  the 
comment  of  his  Secretary  of  State,  he  replied,  "  I  reckon  Van  is 
right.  I  dare  say  they  will  try  to  throw  the  blame  on  him." 

1  Van  Buren,  in  his  Autobiography,  p.  376,  convincingly  exonerates  himself  from 
all  complicity. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN        111 

And  of  course  Van  Buren  was  right.  After  many  conferences 
on  the  subject  with  Calhoun,  Adams  recorded  in  his  diary 
that  "Calhoun  is  under  the  firm  persuasion  that  the  author 
of  this  combustion  is  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  has  used  the 
agency  of  James  A.  Hamilton  in  producing  it,  and  that  Ham 
ilton,  as  well  as  Forsyth,  had  been  a  go-between  to  and  from 
Nashville."  l  The  denial  of  Van  Buren  at  the  time  was  dis 
counted  by  the  anxiety  of  Hamilton,  after  talking  with  For 
syth  in  Georgia,  to  have  Crawford's  statement  in  writing. 
Nothing,  however,  could  have  been  more  effective  in  elimi 
nating  Calhoun  from  the  presidential  race. 

That  he  appreciated  his  predicament  and  fought  desper 
ately  to  extricate  himself  is  shown  in  various  ways.  Wirt 
declared,  at  the  time,  that  "he  has  blasted  his  prospects  of 
future  advancement,"  and  Adams  described  him  as  a  "drown 
ing  man."  But  the  most  conclusive  evidence  of  Calhoun's 
desperate  efforts  is  to  be  found  in  the  numerous  notations  in 
Adams's  journal.  The  first  entry  is  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
"received  a  letter  from  John  C.  Calhoun  .  .  .  relating  to  his 
personal  controversy  with  President  Jackson  and  William  H. 
Crawford.  He  questions  me  concerning  the  letter  of  Gen. 
Jackson  to  Mr.  Monroe  which  Crawford  alleges  to  have  been 
produced  at  the  Cabinet  meetings  on  the  Seminole  War,  and 
asks  for  copies,  if  I  think  proper  to  give  them,  of  Crawford's 
letter  to  me,  which  I  received  last  summer,  and  of  my  an 
swer."  It  is  characteristic  that  the  only  comment  of  Adams 
is  an  impartial  damnation  of  the  trio,  Jackson,  Calhoun,  and 
Crawford,  and  especially  of  the  Carolinian  for  his  "icy- 
hearted  dereliction  of  all  the  decencies  of  social  intercourse 
with  me,  solely  from  terror  of  Jackson."  But  the  day  follow 
ing,  we  find  Adams  delving  into  his  diary  of  1818.  "I  thought 
it  advisable,"  he  writes,  "to  have  extracts  from  it  made  of 
all  those  parts  relating  to  the  Seminole  War  and  the  Cabinet 
meetings  concerning  it.  As  the  copy  must  be  made  by  an 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Jan.  30,  1831. 


PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

entirely  confidential  hand,  my  wife  undertakes  the  task."  l 
A  little  later  2  we  find  a  Mr.  Crowninshield  applying  to  him 
on  behalf  of  Mr.  Crawford  for  a  written  verification  of  the 
Cabinet  incident.  And  four  days  after  that  we  have  Calhoun 
writing  again  "requesting  statements  of  the  conduct  of  Mr. 
Crawford  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Cabinet  upon  the  Sem- 
inole  War."  3  The  same  day  Wirt 4  informs  Adams  that  he 
has  received  a  similar  note  from  the  Georgian,  and  asks  for 
a  conference. 

That  night  Adams  went  to  Wirt's  lodgings  on  Capitol  Hill 
and  found  him  in  bed  and  asleep.  He  was  awakened,  how 
ever,  by  a  fellow  lodger,  and  a  four-hour  conference  followed, 
with  Adams  reading  the  former  Attorney-General  the  letter 
from  Crawford  and  the  answer  sent,  and  also  from  the  Adams 
diary  of  May  to  August,  1818. 

It  seems  that  Adams  was  not  prompt  in  complying  with 
Calhoun's  request,  and  a  third  letter  reached  him  pressing 
him  for  a  statement  of  Crawford's  conduct  and  opinions 
expressed  at  the  Cabinet  consultation  on  the  Seminole  War, 
causing  the  former  President  to  comment  sourly  in  his  diary 
that  he  would  give  no  letter  until  he  had  seen  all  the  corre 
spondence,  and  knew  precisely  the  points  in  dispute.5  There 
appears  to  have  been  little  disposition  on  the  part  of  Calhoun 
to  meet  this  requirement,  for  Adams  notes  that  he  had  re 
ceived  from  Calhoun  "an  extract"  from  Crawford's  letter  to 
Forsyth,  but  not  all  the  correspondence.6  On  the  next  day, 
the  Carolinian,  who  was  evidently  devoting  himself  fever 
ishly  and  exclusively  to  the  hopeless  attempt  to  save  himself, 
sent  "a  further  extract  from  the  Crawford  letter."  7  The 
unpleasant  old  Puritan,  thoroughly  enjoying  the  torture  of 
the  fighting  politicians,  calmly  awaited  all  the  correspond- 

1  Memoirs,  Jan.  15,  1831.  2  Ibid.,  Jan.  26,  1831. 

3  Ibid.,  Jan.  30,  1831. 

4  Attorney-General  in  Monroe's  and  Adams's  Cabinets. 

6  Memoirs,  Feb.  4,  1831.  f  Ibid.t  Feb.  4,  1831. 

7  Ibid.t  Feb.  5,  1831. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN        113 

ence,  and  thus  a  week  later  we  learn  from  the  diary  that 
"Mr.  Martin  took  me  aside  and  delivered  to  me  a  letter  from 
Vice-President  Calhoun  with  a  bundle  of  papers,  being  the 
correspondence  .  .  .  ,"and  that  the  messenger  "said  that  Mr. 
Calhoun  wished  to  have  the  papers  returned  to  him  to 
morrow  morning."  1 

On  the  following  day  Wirt,  having  moved  to  Gadsby's,  was 
there  informed  by  Adams  that  he  had  received  the  corre 
spondence,  but  "that  Mr.  Calhoun  had  withheld  two  impor 
tant  papers;  one,  the  letter  from  General  Jackson  to  Mr. 
Monroe  of  Jan.  6,  1818,  and  the  other,  Crawford's  last  letter 
to  CaLhoun,  which,  he  sent  me  word,  he  had  returned  to 
Crawford."  2  A  few  days  later  a  Dr.  Hunt  called  upon 
Adams,  "more  full  of  politics  and  personalities  than  of 
physic,"  with  the  announcement  that  "Mr.  Calhoun's 
pamphlet  is  to  be  published  to-morrow  morning."  3 

To  Adams  the  issue  was  clear  —  a  battle  between  Calhoun 
and  Van  Buren  for  the  Presidency.  The  next  day  this  pam 
phlet,  bearing  the  elaborate  title,  "  Correspondence  between 
General  Andrew  Jackson  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  President 
and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  on  the  Subject  of 
the  Course  of  the  latter  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Cabinet 
of  Mr.  Monroe  on  the  Occurrences  in  the  Seminole  War," 
was  published  at  midnight  by  Duff  Green  in  the  "National 
Telegraph."  "In  my  walk  about  the  Capitol  Square," 
writes  Adams,  "I  met  E.  Everett,  R.  G.  Amory,  E.  Wyer, 
and  Matthew  L.  Davis,  all  of  whom,  with  the  exception  of 
Wyer,  spoke  of  the  pamphlet.  I  received  a  copy  of  it  under 
cover  from  Mr.  Calhoun  himself." 

Then  the  war  opened  in  earnest.  The  "Telegraph"  favor 
ably  commented  upon  the  pamphlet,  and  the  "Globe"  un- 

1  Memoirs,  Feb.  12,  1831. 

2  This  letter  of  Crawford's  was  returned  to  the  writer,  according  to  Shipp's  Life  of 
Crawford,  p.  210,  which  contains  the  letter  —  a  vicious  philippic  —  and  Calhoun's 
brief  note  on  returning  it. 

3  Memoirs,  Feb.  16,  1831.  ^  «  Ibid.,  Feb.  17, 1831. 


114    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

favorably.  Adams  found  that  "the  effect  of  Mr.  Calhoun's 
pamphlet  is  yet  scarcely  perceptible  in  Congress,  still  less 
upon  public  opinion,"  and  that,  while  the  Administration  was 
at  war  with  itself,  "the  stream  of  popularity  runs  almost  as 
strongly  in  its  favor  as  ever."  l  Not  content  with  the  pam 
phlet  alone,  the  "National  Telegraph"  followed  it  with 
Crawford's  letter  to  Calhoun,  and  another  of  Forsyth's,  and 
Adams  observed  with  interest  that  "in  all  this  correspondence 
Van  Buren  is  not  seen;  but  James  A.  Hamilton,  intimately 
connected  with  him,  is  a  busy  ;ntermeddler  throughout."  2 
This  notation  was  in  line  with  the*  gossip  of  the  capital  at  the 
time  of  the  controversy. 

A  little  more  than  a  week  after  the  appearance  of  the  pam 
phlet,  Calhoun  published  his  correspondence  with  Hamilton 
in  the  "Telegraph,"  and  Duff  Green,  in  the  same  issue,  edito 
rially  charged  Van  Buren  with  responsibility  for  the  rumpus. 
And  this  was  met  on  the  following  day  by  the  latter  in  a  letter 
to  the  paper  positively  denying  any  interest  in  the  contro 
versy,  or  any  knowledge  of  Hamilton's  correspondence  with 
Forsyth  or  Calhoun.  Green  responded  by  writing  Van  Buren 
down  as  a  liar.3  Thus  the  controversy  raged,  drawing  poli 
ticians,  one  after  another,  into  the  fight.  But  in  this  fearsome 
medley  of  charges  and  counter-charges  one  fact  stood  out  — 
that  Calhoun  had  misrepresented  his  conduct  in  the  Monroe 
Cabinet  to  Jackson,  and,  on  being  betrayed  by  Crawford, 
had  incurred  the  deadly  enmity  of  the  President.  As  far  as 
/  Jackson  was  concerned  in  the  public  controversy,  the  matter 
/  rested  with  Calhoun's  initial  letter  of  admission  that  he  had 

- — ' —       «, 

opposed  Jackson's  course  in  the  war.  He  prepared  an  elabo- 
ratelSateinentrof  the  facts  for  thepurposes  of  history,  turned 
it  over  to  the  editor  of  the  "Globe,"  who  became  his  literary 
executor,  and  he,  in  turn,  permitted  Kendall  to  study  it  when 

1  Memoirs,  Feb.  21,  1831.  *  Ibid.,  Feb.  22,  1831. 

8  It  was  not  until  Jackson  had  asked  Hamilton  for  Forsyth's  letter  that  the  latter 
told  Van  Buren  of  its  contents.  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  373. 


JACKSON  BREAKS  WITH  CALHOUN        115 

he  was  planning  a  biography  of  the  President.1  But  of  all  this 

the  public  knew  nothing.  

The  inevitable  storm  had  broken.  Van  Buren,,  suavely 
in  the  background,  was  clearly  the  beneficiary,  Calhoun  just 
as  clearly  the  victim.  After  this  the  great  Carolinian  lost 
interest  in  the  Presidency,  all  concern  with  party,  and  hence 
forth,  with  occasional  attacks  on  Jackson,  concentrated  on 
sectionalism  and  slaveryy  His  disaffection  was  to  carry 
it  that  of  his  more  ardent  supporters,  and  thus  in  scarcely 
more  than  a  year  Calhoun,  Tyler,  Tazewell,  and  the  men 
who  looked  to  them  for  guidance,  passed  from  the  Adminis 
tration  camp  to  join  the  Opposition.  And  the  incident  had 
one  immediate  effect  —  inseparable  from  it  —  the  disruption 
of  the  Cabinet  with  the  eradication  of  the  last  vestige  of 
Calhoun  jnfluence  from  all  the  executive  branches  of  the 
Government. 

1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  168. 


CHAPTER  V 

MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET 

I 

AT  the  time  the  politicians  were  discussing  the  open  rupture 
with  Calhoun,  two  horsemen  might  have  been  seen  riding 
slowly  through  Georgetown,  and  out  on  the  Tenallytown 
road,  engaged  in  earnest  conversation.  It  was  not  a  novelty, 
however,  to  the  people  of  the  ancient  river  town,  for  this  had 
long  been  a  favorite  route  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  on  their 
daily  rides.  On  this  occasion  Jackson  had  been  discussing 
the  painful  lack  of  harmony  in  his  Cabinet  and  had  expressed 
the  hope  that  his  troubles  were  about  over. 

"No,  General,"  said  Van  Buren,  a  little  nervously,  "there 
is  but  one  thing  that  will  give  you  peace." 

"What  is  that,  sir?"  snapped  the  grim  one. 

"My  resignation." 

"Never,  sir;  even  you  know  little  of  Andrew  Jackson  if  you 
suppose  him  capable  of  consenting  to  such  a  humiliation  of 
his  friends  by  his  enemies." 

To  understand  the  conditions  leading  to  such  a  suggestion 
from  Van  Buren,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  to  the  serious  petti 
coat  entanglement  in  which  Jackson  found  himself  within  a 
few  weeks  after  his  inauguration,  because  of  the  presence 
of  Senator  Eaton  in  his  Cabinet.  It  is  an  amusing  fact  that 
the  first  real  democratic  administration  in  American  history 
should  have  been  all  but  wrecked  on  a  social  issue.  Aside 
from  the  agreeable  work  of  "turning  the  rascals  out,"  lit 
tle  had  occurred  to  disturb  the  serenity  of  the  new  Adminis 
tration  between  the  inauguration  and  the  meeting  of  the 
Congress  in  the  following  December  but  this  social  war.  The 
call  to  battle  had  been  sounded  even  before  Jackson  had 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    117 

taken  the  oath  of  office;  the  battle  raged  with  unprecedented 
fury  for  many  months,  finally  wrecking  the  Cabinet  and 
advancing  Van  Buren  to  within  sight  of  the  White  House.  It 
has  not  been  uncommon  for  women  to  change  the  course  of 
political  and  dynastic  history  in  other  countries,  but  to  this 
day  the  case  of  the  captivating  Margaret  O'Neal  is  unique 
in  the  United  States. 

The  pretty  daughter  of  a  popular  tavern-keeper,  whose  old- 
fashioned  house  was  a  favorite  with  statesmen  and  their 
wives,  she  had  developed  into  womanhood  under  the  eyes 
of  men  famous  in  the  State.  Here  Jackson  lived  during  his 
senatorial  service,  and  grew  fond  of  the  vivacious  child  he 
often  held  on  his  knee.  With  the  education  a  doting  father 
lavished  upon  her,  and  with  her  intimate  contact  with  men 
of  ability  and  women  of  refinement,  she  found  herself,  on  the 
threshold  of  life,  the  intellectual  peer  of  the  best  of  her  sex. 
It  is  not  unnatural  that  this  clever  and  beautiful  girl  should 
have  incurred  the  jealous  displeasure  of  the  less  attractive 
spouses  of  the  elder  statesmen.  Her  rare  beauty  alone  would 
have  done  that  had  she  been  as  virtuous  as  Csesar's  wife 
should  have  been.  Perley  Poore  1  describes  her  as  of  medium 
height,  straight  and  delicate  and  of  perfect  proportions;  with 
a  skin  of  delicate  white,  tinged  with  red,  and  with  an  abun 
dance  of  dark  hair  clustered  above  her  broad,  expressive 
forehead;  with  a  nose  of  perfect  Greek  proportions,  a  finely 
curved  mouth,  a  firm,  round  chin  —  the  Aspasia  of  Washing 
ton.  When,  in  addition  to  her  physical  and  intellectual  charms, 
it  must  be  recorded  that  she  occasionally  played  the  role  of 
barmaid,  permitting  such  liberties  as  men  in  the  early  stages 
of  their  cups  would  take,  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  the 
more  sedate  matrons  of  the  little  capital  were  prone  to  look 
upon  her  as  beyond  the  pale.  She  had  married  a  purser  in  the 
navy,  and  even  her  enemies  at  the  time  conceded  that  the 
match  was  a  mesalliance  because  of  her  intellectual  superi- 

1  Perley's  Reminiscences,  I,  122. 


118    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ority.  In  time  the  husband  sailed  across  the  sea,  leaving  his 
comely  young  wife  in  the  rather  free-and-easy  atmosphere 
of  her  father's  tavern.  The  moral  conditions  of  the  capital 
were  not  such  as  to  spare  the  most  virtuous,  thus  situated, 
from  the  tongue  of  gossip.  A  contemporary  has  said  that  the 
Washington  of  those  days  "resembled  in  recklessness  and 
extravagance  the  spirit  of  the  England  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century,  so  graphically  portrayed  in  Thackeray's  'Hu 
morists.5  .  .  .  Laxity  of  morals  and  the  coolest  disregard  pos 
sible,  characterized  that  period  of  our  existence."  l 

Living  at  the  O'Neal  tavern  at  the  time  was  the  wealthy 
Senator  Eaton,  who  had  manifested  more  than  a  passing 
interest  in. "Peggy,"  as  she  was  called,  before  her  marriage. 
Gossip  had  it  that  he  became  more  than  ever  attentive  when 
the  sailor  went  to  sea.  When,  after  a  drunken  debauch, 
which  the  gossips,  without  the  slightest  justification,  ascribed 
to  the  worthless  seaman's  knowledge  of  his  wife's  friendship 
for  the  Senator,  the  husband  shot  himself,  and  Eaton  was 
found  in  her  company  with  increasing  frequency,  the  case 
was  complete  as  far  as  the  drawing-rooms  were  concerned. 
All  that  evidence  could  not  furnish,  the  imagination  did,  and 
pretty  Peggy  stood  pilloried  in  the  community. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Eaton  asked  the  advice  of 
Jackson  as  to  a  marriage.  With  characteristic  impulsiveness 
the  old  warrior  replied  that  if  he  loved  her  he  should  marry 
her  and  save  her  good  name  by  the  act.  Thus,  on  January 
1,  1829,  the  future  Secretary  of  War  was  married  to  the 
tavern-keeper's  daughter,  and  instantly  the  drawing-rooms 
began  to  buzz.  One  of  the  patrician  ladies  of  the  time  of  the 
wedding  poured  forth  the  chatter  of  the  social  set.  Here  we 
find  that  Mrs.  Eaton  "had  never  been  admitted  into  good 
society";  that  while  "very  handsome"  she  was  "not  of  an 
inspiring  character"  and  had  a  "violent  temper";  that 
notwithstanding  this  she  was  "irresistible"  and  "carries 

1  Parley's  Reminiscences. 


I 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    119 

whatever  point  she  sets  her  mind  on."  The  enemies  of  Jack 
son  were  laughing  in  the  drawing-rooms  and  diverting  them 
selves  "with  the  idea  of  what  a  suitable  lady  in  waiting  Mrs. 
Eaton  will  make  for  Mrs.  Jackson,"  and  were  repeating 
"the  old  adage,  'Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together.'"  1  In 
arriving  at  an  understanding  of  Jackson's  vigorous  defense 
of  the  lady  of  his  Cabinet,  it  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
same  scandal-mongers  were  rolling  the  name  of  Mrs.  Jackson 
on  their  tongues.  The  same  letter  relates  how  one  of  Mrs. 
Smith's  gentlemen  callers  "laughed  and  joked  about  Mrs. 
Jackson  and  her  pipe." 

The  marriage  might  have  remained  merely  one  of  the 
innumerable  morsels  with  which  ladies  sometimes  regale  the 
drawing-rooms  but  for  the  announcement  that  Eaton  had 
been  invited  into  the  Cabinet  —  and  that  spread  the  contro 
versy  to  the  politicians.  Among  these  Senator  John  Branch 
had  the  courage  or  the  insolence  personally  to  press  the  point 
upon  Jackson  that,  because  of  social  complications,  the 
appointment  of  Eaton  would  be  "unpopular  and  unfortu 
nate."  2  Jackson  heard  his  future  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in 
stern  silence,  and  appointed  Eaton  Secretary  of  War.  The 
inauguration  was  scarcely  over  when  the  petticoat  battle 
began.  The  most  fashionable  minister  at  the  capital  at  the 
time,  at  whose  church  Mrs.  Smith,  the  Branches,  the  Berriens, 
and  the  Inghams  worshiped,3  importuned,  no  doubt,  by  the 
society  women  of  the  city,  and  quite  probably  encouraged  by 
the  Cabinet  ladies  of  his  congregation,  persuaded  a  Phila 
delphia  minister  to  write  the  President  of  the  alleged  irregu 
larities  of  Mrs.  Eaton.  Some  of  these  ministerial  charges  are 
unfit  for  print.  Jackson  sent  a  stinging  reply,  and  at  the 
same  time  employed  detectives  to  investigate  the  charges. 
The  search  of  the  sleuths  was  unavailing,  and  the  situation 
became  so  embarrassing  to  the  Philadelphia  clergyman  that 

1  First  Forty  Years,  253.  2  Haywood's  Branch. 

3  Rev.  J.  N.  Campbell. 


120    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

he  demanded  that  the  Washington  minister  should  reveal 
himself. 

Thus,  on  the  evening  of  September  1,  1829,  a  unique  con 
ference  was  held  at  the  White  House,  when  Jackson  con 
fronted  the  two  clergymen,  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  and 
forced  them  to  admit  that  they  had  no  evidence.  One  of 
the  worst  charges  had  been  that  a  certain  physician,  con 
veniently  dead,  had  said  that  Mrs.  Eaton  had  undergone  a 
premature  accouchement  when  her  husband  had  been  more 
than  a  year  at  sea  —  the  date  fixed  as  1821.  When  con 
fronted  by  the  fact  that  the  first  husband  had  not  gone  to  sea 
until  1824,  the  clergyman  lightly  changed  the  date  to  con 
form.  This  disgusted  and  enraged  Jackson.  Because  he 
cross-examined  the  gentlemen  of  the  cloth  regarding  a  matter 
affecting  the  reputation  of  a  woman,  some  historians  have 
been  resentful  of  his  severity.1  The  purpose  was  to  convince 
the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  who  were  present,  that  their 
ladies  were  working  a  grave  injustice  upon  the  wife  of  a  col 
league  in  refusing  her  social  intercourse.  But  far  from  satisfy 
ing  the  women,  the  discomfiture  of  the  minister  and  the  utter 
collapse  of  the  case  only  embittered  them  the  more  against 
her.  The  minister  was  placed  in  a  painful  position,  dubbed 
by  the  irrepressible  "Ike"  Hill  as  " the  chaplain  of  the  con 
spiracy,"  and  described  by  Mrs.  Smith 2  as  having  been 
"rendered  incapable  of  attending  to  his  ministerial  duties 
to  such  a  degree  as  to  produce  great  dissatisfaction  in  his 
congregation." 

Meanwhile  months  had  gone  by  and  Mrs.  Eaton  was  still 
snubbed.  Mrs.  Calhoun,  a  thorough  aristocrat,  had  posi 
tively  refused  to  call.  Mrs.  Ingham,  whose  own  reputation  was 
not  unquestioned,  took  her  cue  from  Mrs.  Calhoun.  Branch 
tells  us  that  when,  in  May,  his  wife  and  daughters  joined  him 
in  Washington,  they  found  Mrs.  Eaton  "excluded  from  so 
ciety,"  and  that  he  "did  not  deem  it  their  duty  to  endeavor 

1  Schouler,  in,  492.  *  First  Forty  Years.  311. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET 

to  control  or  counteract  the  decision  of  the  ladies  of  Washing 
ton."  1  Miss  Berrien  had  accepted  the  verdict  of  the  women, 
and  her  father  was  openly  expressing  his  admiration  for  "the 
heroic  virtues  of  John  Branch  for  hazarding  his  place  rather 
than  permit  his  wife  and  daughters  to  associate  with  the 
wife  of  John  H.  Eaton."  2  Parties  were  given  and  Mrs.  Eaton 
was  not  invited;  at  public  receptions  she  was  snubbed. 

This  was  all  meat  and  drink  to  Adams,  who  recorded  in  his 
diary,  after  some  scandal  gossip  with  Mrs.  Rush:  "I  told 
Mrs.  Rush  that  this  struggle  was  likely  to  terminate  in  a 
party  division  of  Caps  and  Hats."  It  is  this  suggestion  as 
to  party  divisions  which  imposes  upon  the  historian  the 
necessity  of  dwelling  upon  this  strange  petticoat  squabble. 
It  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that,  when  Martin 
Van  Buren  appeared  at  social  functions  with  the  pretty 
Peggy  on  his  arm,  he  made  himself  President  of  the  United 
States. 

When  the  Red  Fox  arrived  in  Washington  and  noted  the 
passionate  determination  of  the  iron  man  at  the  White 
House  to  force  a  social  recognition  of  Mrs.  Eaton,  he  could 
not  have  been  unmindful  of  his  advantage.  He  was  a  wid 
ower.  No  wife  or  daughters  were  with  him  to  be  com 
promised.  His  biographer  3  makes  the  point  that  he  called 
upon  the  accused  woman  in  response  to  common  instincts  of 
decency,  and  that  his  failure  to  have  done  so  would  have 
amounted  to  a  striking  public  condemnation.  But  he  did 
something  more  than  merely  call  upon  her  —  he  became  an 
active  and  aggressive  partisan  of  her  cause,  and  by  so  doing 
endeared  himself  to  Jackson.  Common  decency  did  not  de 
mand  that  he  feature  her  at  his  dinners  and  receptions,  or 
enter  into  an  agreement  with  two  unmarried  members  of  the 
diplomatic  corps  to  do  likewise.4  It  is  impossible  to  account 
for  this  extraordinary  partisanship  on  any  other  grounds 

1  Haywood's  Branch.         2  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  18,  1830. 

3  Shepard.  *  Vaughan  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Russian  Minister. 


122    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

than  his  desire  to  curry  special  favor  with  the  President. 
His  conduct  and  activities  became  the  subject  of  jests  and 
quips.  "It  is  asserted  that  if  Mr.  Van  Buren  persists  in 
visiting  her  [Mrs.  Eaton],  our  ladies  will  not  go  to  his  house," 
wrote  one  of  the  stubborn  dames.1  With  the  ladies  of  the 
Cabinet  giving  large  parties,  the  wife  of  Eaton  was  omitted 
from  the  invitation  lists,  and  Van  Buren  countered  with 
dinners  and  dances  at  the  British  and  Russian  Legations 
at  which  Mrs.  Eaton  was  treated  with  marked  distinction. 
But  even  here  "cotillion  after  cotillion  dissolved  into  its 
original  elements  when  she  was  placed  at  its  head."  2  At  the 
Russian  Legation,  Madame  Huygens,  wife  of  the  Dutch 
Minister,  on  finding  that  her  seat  was  beside  Mrs.  Eaton  at 
the  table,  haughtily  took  her  husband's  arm  and  stalked 
impressively  from  the  room.  Because  of  this  affront,  Jackson 
was  prone  to  make  it  an  international  incident  by  demanding 
the  recall  of  the  Minister,  but  Van  Buren's  sense  of  humor 
intervened.  In  sheer  delight  Adams  wrote:  "Mr.  Vaughan 
.  .  .  gave  a  ball  last  night  which  was  opened  by  Mr.  Bank- 
head,  the  Secretary  of  the  British  Legation,  and  Mrs.  Eaton; 
and  Mr.  Van  Buren  has  issued  cards  also  for  a  ball  which  is 
to  be  given  in  honor  of  the  same  lady.  I  confine  myself  to  the 
Russian  and  Turkish  war."  3  In  the  late  summer  of  1829  the 
effect  of  the  struggle  upon  both  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  was 
apparent.  The  President,  disgusted,  worn,  and  sick  at  heart, 
was  confiding  to  his  correspondents  his  partiality  for  the  calm 
of  the  Hermitage.  And  Adams,  riding  about  the  environs, 
and  encountering  Van  Buren,  similarly  taking  the  air,  spite 
fully  wrote:  "His  pale  and  haggard  looks  show  it  is  already  a 
reward  of  mortification.  If  it  should  prove,  as  there  is  every 
probability  that  it  will,  a  reward  of  treachery,  it  will  be  but 
his  desert."  4 

1  Mrs.  Smith. 

*  Mary  G.  Crawford,  Romantic  Days  of  the  Early  Republic,  219. 

»  Memoirs,  March  3.  1830.  «  Ibid.,  July  8.  1829. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    123 

When  the  winter  came  and  the  social  eason  opened,  the 
contest  naturally  intensified.  Ingham,  Branch,  and  Berrien 
gave  large  parties  from  which  Mrs.  Eaton  was  excluded, 
while  "on  the  other  hand  the  President  made  her  doubly 
conspicuous  by  an  over  display  of  notice."  1  At  one  of  the 
President's  drawing-rooms  she  was  surrounded  by  a  crowd 
eager  to  please  the  host,  but  Mrs.  Donelson,  mistress  of  the 
White  House,  held  aloof.  This  rebellion  under  his  own  roof 
caused  the  aged  President  the  deepest  pain.  Adams  records 
a  melodramatic  appeal  by  Van  Buren  to  Mrs.  Donelson, 
which  was  highly  colored  by  the  ardent  Pepys,  but  such  an 
appeal  was  made.2  The  effect  of  the  fight  was  disastrous 
to  the  Administration.  The  members  of  the  Cabinet  were 
speedily  involved  by  their  wives,  and  for  a  time  Eaton  and 
Branch  did  not  speak.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Jackson 
determined  to  intervene,  and  "to  bring  them  to  speaking 
terms."  3  His  intermediary  for  the  purpose,  Colonel  Richard 
M.  Johnson,4  was  not  a  Talleyrand,  and  his  lack  of  tact  in  his 
talks  with  Branch,  Berrien,  and  Ingham  made  matters  all  the 
worse.  When  the  relations  of  the  Cabinet  members  became 
threatening,  Jackson  demanded  that  they  meet  and  reach  a 
basis  for  official  intercourse  at  least.  The  meeting  was  held 
at  the  home  of  Berrien,  attended  by  Branch,  Eaton,  and 
Barry.  The  negotiations  were  conducted  with  dignity  and 
decorum,  Branch  satisfactorily  explained  invitations  to  the 
ministers  who  had  accused  Eaton's  wife,  and  the  two  shook 
hands  as  a  token  of  reconciliation.5  Meanwhile  Congress  was 
in  session.  All  attempts  to  hold  Cabinet  meetings  had  long 
been  abandoned.  The  lines  were  drawn  tightly.  The  slights 
and  indignities  to  Mrs.  Eaton  had  become  all  but  intolerable. 
And  much  was  being  heard  of  the  alleged  frailty  and  indis- 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Feb.  6,  1830. 

2  Van  Buren  probably  gives  the  true  story  in  his  Autobiography,  343-44. 
8  Adams's  Memoirs. 

4  Later  Vice-President  and  noted  as  slayer  of  Tecumseh. 
*  Letter  from  Branch,  in  Haywood's  Branch. 


124    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

cretions  of  Mrs.  Ingham  —  stories  that  seem  to  have  been 
well  known  at  the  time,  but  to  have  been  given  renewed 
currency  by  Eaton.1 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Van  Buren,  riding  with  Jack 
son,  proposed  the  acceptance  of  his  resignation.  Meditating 
the  step  for  some  time  he  had  been  unable  to  muster  the 
courage  to  broach  the  subject.  For  four  days  the  President 
and  his  Secretary  of  State  rode  the  Tenallytown  road  ear 
nestly  debating  the  propriety  of  the  plan,  and  on  the  fourth 
day,  just  as  they  reached  their  turning-point  at  the  Tenally 
town  Gate,  Jackson  gave  a  reluctant  consent  and  suggested 
the  British  Mission.  But  the  grim  old  warrior  was  loath  to 
part  with  his  one  strong  friend  in  the  Cabinet,  and  early  the 
next  morning  he  summoned  Van  Buren  to  the  White  House, 
and  in  great  agitation,  and  with  significance,  explained  anew 
that  it  was  his  custom  to  release  from  association  with  him 
any  man  who  felt  that  he  ought  to  go.  Thoroughly  alarmed, 
Van  Buren,  with  emotion,  withdrew  all  he  had  said,  and 
announced  a  willingness  to  retain  his  post  until  dismissed. 
Deeply  touched,  Jackson  proposed  another  discussion  on 
their  afternoon  ride.  It  was  that  afternoon  that  it  was  agreed 
to  call  others  into  the  conference;  and  the  next  night  Van 
Buren  had  as  dinner  guests  Jackson,  Barry,  Eaton,  and 
Major  Lewis.  Finally  Eaton  agreed  to  follow  with  his  resig 
nation.  Would  Peggy  consent,  asked  the  tactful  Fox.  Her 
husband  thought  she  would.  The  next  night  the  five  met 
at  dinner  again,  with  Eaton  reporting  his  wife's  acquiescence 
in  the  plans.  But  when,  a  few  days  later,  Jackson  and  Van 
Buren,  out  for  a  stroll,  stopped  at  the  Eaton  house,  their 
reception  from  the  mistress  was  so  cold  and  formal  that  the 
Secretary  commented  upon  it,  and  Jackson  shrugged  his 
shoulders  in  silence.  But  the  die  was  cast.  The  plan  was 
made.  Van  Buren  and  Eaton  would  resign,  thus  paving  the 
way  for  the  resignation  of  the  Calhoun  followers,  and  a 

1  First  Forty  Years,  311. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    125 

reorganization  of  the  Cabinet  —  with  the  Calhoun  influence 
entirely  eliminated.1 

n 

THE  decision  made,  the  old  President  must  have  felt  a  sense 
of  ineffable  relief.  His  Cabinet  had  been  a  failure  and  he 
realized  it.  His  dissatisfaction  with  a  majority  of  its  members 
was  not  due  entirely  to  their  hostility  to  Mrs.  Eaton.  The 
fight  against  the  National  Bank  was  in  its  incipiency  and  he 
looked  upon  Ingham  as  a  tool  of  the  Bank;  the  Nullification 
doctrine  was  being  promulgated  and  he  considered  Berrien  a 
Nullifier  —  and  in  both  surmises  he  was  right.  He  thought 
Branch  pompous,  incompetent,  and  subservient  to  petticoat 
rule.  And  we  may  be  sure  that  whether  or  not  the  Cabinet 
was  to  be  reorganized  in  the  interest  of  Van  Buren,  the  rela 
tions  of  all  three  toward  the  Carolinian  entered  into  his  deci 
sion  to  rid  himself  of  them.  There  is  evidence  that  he  quite 
early  determined  to  displace  Berrien,  but  nothing  of  record 
to  indicate  the  cause.  In  the  man  selected  for  his  place, 
however,  we  have  ample  justification  for  the  suspicion  that 
the  Red  Fox  had  poisoned  his  mind  against  his  Attorney- 
General.  It  was  on  the  suggestion  of  Van  Buren,  very  soon 
after  the  formation  of  the  Cabinet  in  1829,  that  the  Attor 
ney-Generalship  was  offered  to  Louis  McLane,  who,  in  dis 
gust,  had  retired  to  Wilmington  for  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  with  the  inducement  that  he  would  later  be  trans 
ferred  to  the  Supreme  Bench  on  the  death  of  the  rapidly  failing 
Justice  Duval.  Before  breakfast  one  morning,  after  a  hard 
ride  over  the  wretched  mud  roads,  Hamilton,  the  lieutenant 
of  Van  Buren,  arrived  at  the  McLane  home  with  the  proposal, 
which  was  accepted.  Nothing,  however,  was  done  —  another 
mystery  that  died  with  Jackson  and  his  Secretary  of  State.2 
But  the  coast  was  now  clear.  A  strong  workable  Cabinet 

1  The  story  of  the  resignation  is  told  in  detail  in  Van  Buren's  Autobiography. 
*  Hamilton,  in  his  Reminiscences,  p.  130,  tells  of  the  ride  to  Wilmington. 


126    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

after  Jackson's  own  heart  could  be  created.  The  manner  in 
which  he  went  about  ridding  himself  of  the  undesirable  mem 
bers  of  the  old  Cabinet  is  graphically  illustrated  in  the  ac 
count  left  by  Branch.1  It  is  easy  to  visualize  the  scene  in 
the  President's  room,  whither  he  has  summoned  Branch  to 
inform  him  of  the  resignations  of  Van  Buren  and  Eaton. 
There  is  a  "solemn  pause."  The  Secretary,  sensing  the 
intent,  smiles,  and  suggests  that  the  grim  one  is  not  "acting 
in  a  character  nature  intended  him  for";  that  he  is  not  a 
diplomatist,  and  should  speak  frankly.  Whereupon  Jackson, 
"with  great  apparent  kindness,"  explains  his  purpose, 
points  to  a  commission  as  Governor  of  Florida  upon  the  table, 
and  announces  that  it  will  be  a  pleasure  to  fill  in  the  name  of 
the  visitor.  Branch  haughtily  declares  that  he  had  "not  sup 
ported  him  for  the  sake  of  office,"  and  soon  retires.  Return 
ing  to  his  office,  Branch  prepares  and  sends  in  his  resignation 
courteously,  but  not  omitting  to  mention  that  the  action 
was  taken  in  response  to  the  President's  wish.  Whereupon 
Jackson,  splitting  hairs,  writes  a  protest  against  the  state 
ment  that  his  correspondent's  resignation  had  been  asked. 
"I  did  not,"  he  writes,  "as  to  yourself,  express  a  wish  that 
you  would  retire."  But  since  the  Cabinet  had  come  in  "har 
moniously  and  as  a  unit,"  and  two  were  voluntarily  retiring, 
it  had  become  "indispensable"  to  reorganize  completely  the 
official  household  "to  guard  against  misrepresentation." 
More  correspondence  follows,  ending  with  a  gracious  accept 
ance  of  the  resignation,  coupled  with  an  expression  of  appre 
ciation  of  the  "integrity  and  zeal"  with  which  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  had  discharged  his  duties.2 

Ingham  made  the  President's  task  easy  with  a  brief  note  of 
resignation,  and  passed  permanently  from  public  life.3   But 

1  Published  in  Haywood's  Branch. 

2  Letters  published  in  Haywood's  Branch. 

3  During  the  Bank  controversy  Ingham  attacked  Jackson  and  defended  the  Bank. 
He  died  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  in  1860,  never  having  held  office  after  leaving 
the  Jackson  Cabinet. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    127 

Berrien  was  loath  to  go.  In  discussing  the  situation  with 
friends,  he  made  no  secret  of  his  desire  to  retain  his  post,  but 
on  learning  that  Jackson  had  no  such  notion,  he  withdrew 
in  a  friendly  and  dignified  letter. 1 

The  period  between  the  announcement  of  Van  Buren 's 
resignation  and  the  appointment  of  the  new  Cabinet  was  rich 
in  food  for  the  gossips.  What  would  become  of  the  Red  Fox? 
Would  Mrs.  Eaton  have  her  triumph  in  the  elevation  of  her 
husband  to  some  other  post  of  distinction?  And  what  would 
be  the  factional  complexion  of  the  new  Cabinet?  John  Tyler, 
sending  his  budget  of  gossip  home,  rather  questioned  the  rumor 
that  Van  Buren  would  be  groomed  for  Vice-President  and 
thought  he  would  prefer  to  go  abroad.  It  had  also  reached 
Tyler  that  Hugh  L.  White  might  become  Secretary  of  War, 
and  that  "Livingston  is  to  rule  the  roost,"  and  he  lamented 
that  in  the  latter  event  "the  Constitution  may  be  construed  to 
mean  anything  and  everything."  He  had  likewise  heard  that 
McLane  would  be  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  "but  how,"  he 
asked,  "can  he  ever  be  acceptable  to  the  South  with  his  notions 
on  the  tariff  and  internal  improvement?"  2  Meanwhile 
there  appears  to  have  been  a  rather  definite  plan  on  the 
part  of  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  for  the  building  of  the  new 
Cabinet. 

m 

EITHER  the  President  or  Van  Buren  could  very  plausibly 
have  been  responsible  for  the  decision  as  to  Livingston  and 
the  State  portfolio,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  proffer  of 
the  post  was  made  through  the  latter.  The  Louisiana  states 
man  was  spending  his  summer  vacation  at  his  country  place 
on  the  Hudson  when  a  mysterious  letter  reached  him  from 
the  New  York  politician,  summoning  him  instantly  to  Wash- 

1  Berrien's  position  is  clearly  disclosed  in  conversations  with  Francis  Scott  Key, 
who  wrote  Roger  Taney.  See  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 

2  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  423. 


128    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ington,  and  warning  him,  on  leaving,  to  conceal  his  destina 
tion.  Observing  both  the  summons  and  the  injunction,  he 
proceeded  at  once  to  the  capital,  and  with  some  misgivings 
accepted  the  post  of  Secretary  of  State.1  That  this  was  Van 
Buren's  appointment  seems  more  than  probable. 

For  the  Treasury,  Louis  McLane,  Minister  to  England,  a 
subordinate,  as  such,  to  Van  Buren,  with  whom  he  had 
worked  in  perfect  accord  politically,  and  whose  wife  was 
ambitious  for  Cabinet  honors,2  was  summoned  home  from 
London.  As  Van  Buren  had,  at  this  time,  selected  the 
London  post  for  himself,  this  appointment  was  unquestion 
ably  his  own. 

The  one  embarrassing  hitch  came  in  the  selection  of  a 
Secretary  of  War.  It  was  the  plan  to  have  Senator  Hugh  L. 
White  of  Tennessee  relinquish  his  seat  for  the  War  Office, 
thus  opening  the  way  for  the  election  of  Eaton  to  his  old 
position  in  the  Senate.  But  White  was  cold  to  the  proposi 
tion.  The  mutual  friends  of  the  President  and  the  Tennessee 
Senator  importuned  him  to  no  effect.  James  K.  Polk  strongly 
urged  him.  Felix  Grundy  added  his  appeal.  Another  wrote 
him:  "The  old  man  says  that  all  his  plans  will  be  defeated  un 
less  you  agree  to  come."  3  Jackson  himself  did  not  hesitate 
to  go  with  White's  brother-in-law  to  Virginia  to  request 
Senator  Tazewell,  an  intimate  of  White's,  to  exert  his  influ 
ence  —  but  to  no  avail.  The  reason  for  this  refusal,  furnished 
by  a  kinswoman,  throws  light  on  the  general  understanding 
as  to  the  purpose  of  the  Cabinet  reorganization  —  he  did  not 
intend  to  "thereby  aid  in  the  elevation  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to 
the  Presidency."  4  Thus  did  Jackson's  earnest  wish  to  serve 
his  friends,  the  Batons,  fail  at  a  critical  juncture.  After  the 

1  At  Philadelphia,  where  he  met  Dallas,  an  intimate,  Livingston  appears  to  have 
discussed  nothing  more  important  than  his  rosebuds  at  Montgomery  Place.  Hunt's 
Life  of  Livingston. 

2  First  Forty  Years,  252,  319. 

3  Letter  from  F.  W.  Armstrong,  quoted  in  Nancy  Scott's  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson 
White. 

4  Nancy  Scott's  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    129 

place  was  also  refused  by  Representative  Drayton  of  South 
Carolina,  an  enemy  of  Nullification,  Jackson  turned  to  his 
old  co-worker  in  the  War  of  1812,  and  Lewis  Cass,  then 
Governor  of  Michigan,  entered  the  new  Cabinet.  This  was 
probably  Jackson's  personal  appointment,  albeit  years  be 
fore,  while  acting  as  judge  advocate  in  the  court-martial  of 
General  Hull,  Van  Buren  had  learned  to  his  discomfiture 
that  Cass  was  no  ordinary  man.1  More  successful  in  caring 
for  his  friend  Isaac  Hill  than  for  the  Batons,  a  proffer  of  the 
Navy  portfolio  to  Senator  Levi  Woodbury  of  New  Hamp 
shire  created  a  senatorial  vacancy  that  fell  to  the  fighting 
journalist.  Incidentally  the  relations  between  Van  Buren 
and  Woodbury  were  close. 

In  finding  a  successor  for  Berrien  the  President  was  handi 
capped  by  the  general  opinion  of  his  friends,  including  Van 
Buren,  that  his  retention  would  serve  a  good  purpose.  Dur 
ing  the  period  of  uncertainty  numerous  names  were  can 
vassed,  the  favorite  of  the  politicians  being  James  Buchanan. 2 
The  first  suggestion  of  Roger  Taney  was  made  to  Jackson  by 
a  Washington  physician  who  had  ventured  to  say  that  he 
knew  "a  man  who  will  suit  for  Attorney-General."  The  dis 
interestedness  and  high  character  of  this  truly  great  and 
much-maligned  man  shines  forth  in  his  conduct  during  this 
period  of  negotiations.  He  not  only  did  not  press  his  claims, 
but  urged  the  retention  of  Berrien,  and,  under  his  instruc 
tions,  his  brother-in-law  (Key)  did  likewise.  Thus  we  find 
Key  calling  upon  Livingston,  Barry,  and  Woodbury,  urging 
the  keeping  of  Berrien  on  the  ground  that  "it  would  have  a 
good  effect  upon  the  affairs  of  the  party,  both  as  to  its  bear 
ing  on  the  Indian  and  the  Eaton  questions."  3  All  three 
agreed,  but  confessed  a  delicacy  about  broaching  the  subject 
unless  consulted.  In  the  midst  of  these  negotiations,  Key 

1  Van  Buren  commenced  the  cross-examination  of  Cass  in  a  flippant  manner,  but 
was  almost  instantly  sobered  by  the  demeanor  and  dignity  of  the  witness.  Young's 
Life  of  Lewis  Cass. 

2  Key's  letter  to  Taney.  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney.  3  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 


ISO    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

was  summoned  to  the  White  House  and  informed  of  the  in 
tention  to  invite  Taney  into  the  Cabinet.  Again  Key  urged 
the  wisdom  of  retaining  Berrien;  the  President  firmly  rejected 
the  idea,  and  thus,  on  his  personal  judgment,  Jackson 
secured  the  services  of  one  of  the  strongest  figures  to  be 
associated  with  him  in  his  most  bitter  battle. 

Livingston,  McLane,  Cass,  Woodbury,  and  Taney  —  this 
at  any  rate  was  not  the  "millennial  of  the  minnows."  But 
the  new  Cabinet  was  not  to  be  received  with  universal 
acclaim.  The  Calhoun  followers  grumbled  that  it  was  a  Van 
Buren  Cabinet;  and  Tyler,  thinking  in  terms  of  State  Rights, 
complained  bitterly  that  State-Rights  men  had  been  left 
"entirely  out  in  the  cold."  * 

Nor  did  the  Eaton  trouble  dissipate  instantly  on  the  pass 
ing  of  the  first  Cabinet.  The  retired  members  stoutly  insisted 
on  every  occasion  that  they  had  been  forced  out  because  of 
their  refusal  to  coerce  their  wives  to  associate  with  naughty 
Peggy.  After  his  return  to  his  North  Carolina  home,  Branch, 
in  a  voluminous  letter,  charged  all  the  responsibility  for  the 
disruption  of  the  Cabinet  to  the  social  issue.  Berrien,  albeit 
not  only  willing  but  anxious  to  remain,  on  his  return  to 
Georgia  eulogized  Jackson  at  a  complimentary  dinner  in  his 
honor,  but  added  that  when  he  attempted  to  prescribe  rules 
for  the  association  of  the  families  of  his  Ministers  he  scorned 
the  dictation.2  And  Duff  Green  was  so  active  and  persistent  in 
ascribing  the  upheaval  to  the  Eaton  affair  that  Key  was  con 
vinced  "that  that  matter  had  not  occasioned  the  change  in 
the  Cabinet."  8  The  gossips  of  the  drawing-rooms,  distressed 
at  being  deprived  of  a  choice  morsel,  set  their  teeth  into  it 
with  a  grim  determination  to  hold  on.  Mrs.  Bayard  Smith,  as 
though  personally  affronted,  wrote  to  a  friend:  "The  papers 
do  not  exaggerate,  nay  do  not  retail  one  half  his  [Jackson's] 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  423. 

8  Miller's  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia. 

*  Letter  to  Taney,  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    131 

imbecilities.  He  is  completely  under  the  domination  of  Mrs. 
Eaton,  one  of  the  most  ambitious,  violent,  malignant,  yet 
silly  women  you  ever  heard  of."  And  a  few  days  later  she 
returns  to  the  attack:  "Mrs.  Eaton  cannot  be  forced  or  per 
suaded  to  leave  Washington.  .  .  .  She  .  .  .  believes  that  next 
winter  the  present  Cabinet  Ministers  will  open  their  doors  to 
her.  Mrs.  McLane  has  already  committed  herself  on  that 
point.  Previous  to  her  going  to  England,  while  on  a  visit 
here,  in  direct  violation  of  her  most  violent  asseverations  pre 
viously  made,  she  visited  this  lady,  and  instantly  became  a 
great  favorite  with  the  President."  l 

However,  if  Mrs.  Eaton  lingered,  others  departed  with  un 
dignified  celerity.  As  soon  as  the  robes  of  office  fell  from  his 
shoulders,  Eaton  began  a  search  for  Ingham  to  administer  a 
personal  chastisement.  The  latter,  who  had  been  peculiarly 
offensive,  and  whose  own  wife  was  a  victim  of  the  gossips, 
would  not  fight  a  duel.  He  did  not  care  to  fight  at  all.  Thus 
began  an  amusing  chase.  Eaton  lay  in  wait  for  him  in  the 
streets,  while  the  dignified  ex-Minister  of  Finance  carefully 
picked  his  way  home  through  the  muddy  alleys  and  back 
yards  into  the  back  door  of  his  house.  At  length  the  chase 
became  uncomfortable.  A  stage-coach  was  chartered.  The 
Inghams'  baggage  was  packed.  Two  hours  before  daybreak, 
the  coach  driver  might  have  been  seen  lashing  his  horses 
through  the  mud  and  water  of  the  capital,  bearing  on  their 
way  to  Philadelphia  the  erstwhile  Cabinet  Minister  and  his 
family. 

The  first  Cabinet,  which  almost  immediately  put  on  a 
drawing-room  comedy,  went  out  with  a  rip-roaring  farce, 
with  seconds  bearing  ominous  messages,  and  with  Cabinet 
officers  lying  in  wait  in  the  shadows,  creeping  through  alleys, 
brandishing  pistols,  and  in  the  darkest  hours  before  the  dawn 
lumbering  in  stage-coaches  out  of  the  capital  city  to  as-* 
cape  a  shot. 

1  First  Forty  Years,  320. 


132    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

The  thoroughly  frightened  Ingham  openly  charged  that 
Eaton  intended  to  murder  him,  and  the  letters  of  the  for 
mer  secretaries  concerning  the  "murder  conspiracy"  added 
mightily  to  the  amusement  of  the  enemies  of  the  Administra 
tion  and  to  the  chagrin  and  disgust  of  its  friends.  "Before 
you  receive  this,"  wrote  a  Washingtonian  to  Senator  John 
Forsyth,  "you  will  have  seen  the  disgraceful  publications  o' 
Eaton  and  Ingham,  which,  of  course,  are  the  sole  topics  ol 
conversation  here.  The  rumor  was  that  the  President  was  en^ 
gaged  the  day  before  yesterday  in  investigating  the  matter, 
and  I  know  that  he  had  a  magistrate  with  him  taking  deposi 
tions."  1  The  hilarity  of  Jackson's  enemies  was  vividly  ex 
pressed  in  a  cartoon,  entitled  "The  Rats  Leaving  a  Falling 
House,"  published  in  Philadelphia,  and,  with  childish  de 
light,  Adams  records  in  his  diary  that  "two  thousand  copies 
of  this  print  have  been  sold  in  Philadelphia  this  day,"  and 
that  the  ten  thousand  copies  struck  off  "will  be  disposed  of 
within  a  fortnight."  2 

("Van  Buren  was  sent  to  the  English  Court.  Eaton  was 
piade  Governor  of  Florida  and  later  Minister  to  Spain,  where 
;Mrs.  Eaton,  in  the  most  dignified  Court  in  Europe,  became 
a  brilliant  success.  Ingham  passed  from  public  life/} Branch 
affiliated  with  the  Whigs  in  1832  and  in  1836,  and  was  made 
Governor  of  Florida  by  Tyler.  Berrien  became  one  of  the 
orators  and  leaders  of  the  Whigs,  and  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Know-Nothing  Party.  {Thus,  after  two  years  of  disorgan 
ization  and  domestic  turmoil,  the  Jackson  Administration, 
with  a  powerful  Cabinet,  and,  for  the  first  time,  a  definite 
policy,  began  to  strike  its  stride^  At  least  two  of  the  new 
Ministers  were  to  play  leading  and  spectacular  parts  in  the 
great  party  battles  that  were  to  follow. 

It  must  have  been  with  a  sense  of  ineffable  relief  that  Jack- 


1  MS.  letter  of  Arthur  Schaaf  to  Senator  John  Forsyth,  written  from  Georgetown 
June  25,  1831,  furnished  the  author  by  Mr.  Wadcly  Wood,  Washington,  D.C. 

2  Memoirs.  April  25,  1831. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    133 

son,  seated  at  the  head  of  the  Cabinet  table,  surveyed  the 
new  men  with  whom  he  had  surrounded  himself  —  a  feeling 
in  which  the  public  shared.  But  as  his  glance  moved  about 
the  table  it  no  doubt  lingered  with  greatest  confidence  and 
satisfaction  upon  the  three  whose  very  appearance  bespoke 
character,  intellectuality,  and  power.  At  his  right  hand  the 
tail  figure,  with  the  student's  stoop,  the  meditative  manner, 
the  benevolent  expression,  which  had  stood  beside  him  in  the 
stirring  days  of  New  Orleans  —  the  scholarly  Livingston. 
Near  by  he  recognized  in  the  imposing  figure  with  the  robust, 
well-knit  frame,  the  huge  head,  the  bushy  brows,  the  pene 
trating,  fighting  blue  eyes  of  Cass; ,_ajnan  of  the  solidity  and 
strength  that  he  admired  and  trusted.  The  one  strange  figure 
about  the  table,  destined  to  prove  more  nearly  a  man  after 
his  own  heart  than  any  other  who  was  to  serve  him  in  the 
Cabinet,  was  Taneyj—  thin  and  delicate  like  Jackson  himself, 
with  the  student's  stoop  of  Livingston,  but  without  his  calm. 
Between  these  three  and  the  others,  there  was  a  decided  de 
scent,  although  they  were  men  of  ability  and  reputation. 

rv 

EDWARD  LIVINGSTON  was  one  of  the  strongest  characters  of 
his  time,  a  Nationalist  as  intense  as  Webster,  who  was  to  pen 
a  document  as  virile  and  militant  as  Webster's  speech  for  the 
Union  —  one  of  the  most  brilliant,  talented,  and  polished 
publicists  the  Republic  has  known.  This  premier  of  the 
greatest  of  democrats,  was  a  thorough  aristocrat,  tracing  his 
lineage  back  to  the  English  peerage.  Compared  with  him, 
the  Opposition  leaders  and  even  their  ladies  of  the  drawing- 
rooms  lamenting  the  social  crudities  of  the  Jacksonians  were  of 
mongrel  breed.  And  yet  this  highest  type  of  aristocrat  was, 
by  preference,  one  of  the  most  ardent  of  democrats.  When, 
in  his  thirtieth  year,  he  entered  the  National  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  from  his  native  city  of  New  York,  he  had  behind 
him  every  advantage  and  before  him  every  opportunity. 


134    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Distinguishing  himself  by  brilliancy  in  debate,  vigor  in  at 
tack,  when  he  left  Congress  his  militant  leadership  of  the  Jef- 
fersonian  party  had  convinced  Hamilton  that  he  had  to  be 
destroyed.1  Jefferson  made  him  district  attorney;  the  people 
elected  him  to  the  mayoralty  of  New  York,  and  the  attempt 
to  serve  in  both  capacities  wrought  his  financial  ruin.  While 
personally  directing  the  fight  against  the  yellow  fever  plague, 
he  was  himself  stricken,  and  he  recovered  only  to  find  that 
his  assistant  in  the  district  attorney's  office  had  squandered 
$100,000  of  the  public  money  on  wine  and  women.  Without 
a  moment's  hesitation  he  conveyed  all  his  property  to  a  trus 
tee  for  sale,  beggared  himself  completely,  and  resigned  both 
his  offices.  The  public  protested  against  his  abandonment  of 
the  mayoralty,  and  for  two  months  the  Governor  refused  to 
accept  his  resignation,  but  he  knew  that  the  path  of  duty  led 
to  the  replenishment  of  his  purse.  Thus,  at  thirty-nine,  leav 
ing  behind  him  the  prestige  of  his  family  connections  and  his 
own  career,  he  turned  toward  Louisiana,  then  the  Promised 
Land,  and  set  forth  for  New  Orleans.  There  he  immediately 
took  high  rank  in  his  profession,  established  a  lucrative  prac 
tice,  and  soon  acquired  valuable  real  estate  abutting  the  river 
which  promised  a  fortune.  The  story  of  how  he  was  deprived 
of  this  through  the  incomprehensible  spite  of  President  Jef 
ferson  constitutes  one  of  the  most  fascinating  chapters  in  the 
history  of  American  litigation.2  But  Livingston  was  sus 
tained  by  infinite  patience,  a  happy  philosophy,  and  natural 
buoyancy  of  temperament,  and  he  soon  found  other  matters 
to  enlist  his  interest.  When  Jackson  reached  New  Orleans  to 
defend  the  town,  it  was  Livingston  who  aroused  the  militant 
spirit  of  the  people  with  his  martial  eloquence,  and  served  as 
the  soldier's  aid,  translator,  and  adviser.  It  was  in  these  days 
amidst  the  barking  of  the  English  guns  that  Jackson  discov- 

1  Hamilton  took  the  stump  in  a  vain  attempt  to  defeat  his  reelection. 

2  .Senator  Beveridge,  in  his  monumental  work  on  John  Marshall,  gives  in  detail 
the  legal  phases  of  the  controversy,  iv,  100-16. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    135 

ered  in  Livingston  the  man  he  could  trust  as  a  patriot  and 
fighter  in  two  of  the  bitterest  battles  of  his  Presidency.1  It 
was  soon  after  this  that  Livingston  began  the  greatest  un 
dertaking  of  his  life  —  one  so  far-reaching  in  its  effect  on 
humanity  as  to  carry  his  name  to  the  thinkers,  philoso 
phers,  and  philanthropists  of  every  land.  The  "Livingston 
Code  "  alone  entitles  him  to  a  place  high  on  the  scroll  of  hu 
manitarians  who  have  served  mankind,  Victor  Hugo  de 
clared  that  he  would  be  "numbered  among  the  men  of  this 
age  who  have  deserved  most  and  best  of  mankind."  Jeremy 
Bentham  was  tremendously  impressed.  Dr.  H.  S.  Maine,  au 
thor  of  the  "Ancient  Laws,"  pronounced  him  "the  first  legal 
genius  of  modern  times."  Villemain,  of  the  Paris  Sorbonne, 
described  his  work  as  "a  work  without  example  from  the 
hand  of  any  one  man."  From  the  Emperor  of  Russia  and  the 
King  of  Sweden  came  autograph  letters,  from  the  King  of  the 
Netherlands  a  gold  medal  and  a  eulogy,  and  statesmen  and 
philosophers  of  Europe  vied  with  kings  and  emperors  in  pay 
ing  homage.  The  Government  of  Guatemala,  not  content 
with  translating  his  "Code  on  Reform  and  Prison  Disci 
pline,"  and  adopting  it  without  the  change  of  a  word,  be 
stowed  upon  a  new  city  and  district  the  name  of  Livingston. 
Jefferson  wrote:  "It  will  certainly  array  your  name  with 
the  sages  of  antiquity";  Kent  and  Story,  Madison  and  Mar 
shall  joined  in  the  common  praise,  and  he  was  elected  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Institute  of  France.  Such  was  the  prestige  he  took 
to  Washington,  when,  in  his  fifty-ninth  year,  he  again  entered 
the  House  as  a  Representative  from  New  Orleans. 

He  was  now  an  old  man,  bijt  of  unusual  vigor,  and  able  to 
wear  out  younger  men  with  his  long  pedestrian  jaunts.  He 
loved  society  and  mingled  with  it  freely,  unable  to  escape  it  if 
he  would  because  of  the  social  and  intellectual  brilliance  of 
his  wife  and  the  charm  and  beauty  of  his  daughter.  His  fame 

1  Hunt's  Life  of  Livingston  describes  in  detail  Livingston's  activities  in  connection 
with  the  battle  of  New  Orleans. 


136"  PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

was  seemingly  secure.  His  reputation  was  world-wide.  His 
conversational  gifts  were  of  an  uncommon  order.  His  friends 
and  social  intimates  were  confined  to  no  party,  and  embraced 
the  best  of  both.  After  a  brief  period  in  the  House  he  had  en 
tered  the  Senate  where  he  stood  among  the  foremost.  Such 
was  the  man  Jackson  called  to  the  head  of  his  Cabinet  —  one 
whose  character  and  career  suffer  nothing  by  comparison 
with  those  of  his  most  distinguished  predecessors,  Jefferson, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  and  Henry  Clay. 


WE  are  not  concerned  with  the  Roger  B.  Taney  who  wrote 
the  Dred  Scott  decision,  but  with  that  portion  of  his  career, 
little  known  and  appreciated,  which  convinced  Jackson  that 
he  was  worthy  of  wearing  the  mantle  of  John  Marshall.  And 
that  is  by  far  the  most  dramatic  phase  of  his  life  —  his  bat 
tling  years.  Born  and  reared  on  a  Maryland  plantation, 
among  horses  and  slaves,  he  grew  up  to  be  an  independent, 
self-reliant  youth.  At  Dickinson  College  he  refused  to  take 
down  a  portion  of  a  lecture  which  assailed  our  republican 
governmental  system.  As  valedictorian  of  his  class  he  suf 
fered  torments  from  a  morbid  fear  of  public  speaking.  Thus 
even  as  a  student  he  was  independent  in  thought,  coura 
geously  devoted  to  his  convictions,  brave  in  battle,  but  mis 
erably  self-conscious  on  parade. 

On  graduating,  he  returned  to  the  woods  and  fields  of  the 
plantation,  abandoned  his  books,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the 
joys  of  fox-hunting,  leading  the  life  of  the  old-fashioned  Eng 
lish  country  gentleman.  Whe^|  he  took  up  the  study  of  law 
in  Annapolis,  however,  he  abandoned  this  outdoor  life  in 
turn,  and,  declining  all  social  invitations,  devoted  himself  to 
his  studies,  and  to  fighting  his  native  timidity,  in  a  debat 
ing  society.  Here  also  he  studied  the  methods  of  two  of 
the  Nation's  greatest  advocates,  Luther  Martin  and  William. 
Pinkney. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    137 

And,  strangely  enough,  this  great  lawyer  in  the  making,  be 
gan  the  practice  of  the  law  as  a  side  issue  to  politics.  In  the 
quiet  rural  community  of  his  nativity,  where  there  was  little 
litigation  and  no  opportunity  for  professional  distinction,  he 
settled,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  entering  the  House  of  Dele 
gates.  This,  however,  in  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  his 
aggressively  Federalistic  father.  Thus,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two,  we  find  young  Taney  responding  to  the  roll-call  as  a  pro 
nounced  Federalist  of  the  school  of  Hamilton.  It  is  note 
worthy  that  he  was  defeated  in  the  next  election  because  of 
the  Jeffersonian  revolution  of  1800. 

This  setback  changed  the  course  of  his  career.  An  uncom 
promising  Federalist  with  Federalism  apparently  dead,  poli 
tics  no  longer  promised  a  future,  and  he  turned  now  to  the 
serious  consideration  of  the  law,  and  located  at  Frederick 
where  the  Democrats  were  overwhelmingly  predominant.  In 
this  community,  rich,  intellectual,  cultured,  and  hospitable, 
he  instantly  took  his  place  among  the  leaders  of  the  bar  and 
entered  upon  a  lucrative  practice.  A  Federalist  from  princi 
ple,  he  did  not  hesitate,  when  called  to  lead  the  forlorn  hope. 
As  a  Federalist,  he  opposed  the  War  of  1812.  Up  to  this 
point  his  political  career  was  similar  to  that  of  Webster. 

And  it  is  in  the  divergence  of  the  two  careers  at  this  point 
that  the  future  of  Taney  turned.  He  fought  the  war  until  the 
die  was  cast,  and  then  threw  himself  with  intense  fervor  into 
the  support  of  his  country  against  the  foreign  foe.  Contemp 
tuous  of  the  disloyalists  of  his  political  family,  he  summoned 
the  Federalists  to  the  unqualified  support  of  the  American 
arms,  and  such  was  his  prestige  that  a  large  portion  of  the 
party  in  Maryland  followed  his  lead.1  By  subordinating 
party  to  country,  he  all  but  obliterated  party  lines,  and  when 
he  was  nominated  for  Congress  as  a  war  Federalist  he  all  but 
wiped  out  the  normal  Democratic  majority.  Had  he  gone  to 

1  These  came  to  be  known  as  the  " Goodies,"  and  Taney  was  known  as  "King 
Coodie"  to  indicate  his  unquestioned  leadership.  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 


138    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Washington  at  that  time  as  a  lone  Federalist  supporting  the 
war,  to  face  Webster,  fighting  the  organization  of  the  army 
and  the  appropriations,  his  national  reputation  would  have 
come  eighteen  years  before  it  did.  For  his  was  no  half 
hearted  hate  of  the  disloyalty  of  his  party  co-workers.  This 
is  the  first  decisive  action  upon  which  an  interpretation  of  his 
political  character  may  be  predicated. 

Meanwhile,  restricting  himself  more  and  more  to  his  pro 
fession,  frequently  associated  with  Luther  Martin  in  the  most 
important  litigation,  his  reputation  spread  throughout  the 
State,  and  the  politician  was  merged  with  the  lawyer.  It  was 
in  connection  with  one  of  his  most  sensational  cases  that  he 
took  a  position  on  slavery  and  the  right  of  abolitionists  to  be 
heard  that  throws  a  high  light  on  his  character  and  courage. 

An  abolitionist  minister  from  Pennsylvania  had  gone  to 
Maryland  and  made  a  ferocious  attack  on  slavery  in  a  public 
meeting  attended  by  some  slaves.  The  excitement  and  feel 
ing  against  him  were  intense.  To  the  sensitive  slave-owners 
the  speech  seemed  a  deliberate  incitation  of  the  slaves  to  in 
surrection.  The  minister's  life  was  in  danger.  It  required  su 
preme  courage  for  a  Maryland  lawyer  in  that  slave-holding 
community  to  stand  between  the  abolitionist  and  the  popular 
clamor  against  him,  and  Taney  stepped  from  the  professional 
ranks  to  plead  his  cause,  not  perfunctorily,  but  with  a  pas 
sionate  defiance  worthy  of  the  highest  traditions  of  his  pro 
fession.  He  made  his  defense  on  no  less  grounds  than  "the 
rights  of  conscience  and  the  freedom  of  speech."  And  he 
spoke  on  slavery  even  as  Garrison  or  Lincoln  might  have 
spoken.  In  a  courtroom  crowded  with  slave-owners  who  were 
his  neighbors,  he  touched  boldly  on  the  pathos  and  the  trag 
edy  of  the  institution.  After  this  daring  defense  before  a 
slave-holding  jury,  the  hated  abolitionist  was  acquitted  — 
and  the  records  of  the  American  courts  record  no  nobler 
triumph. 

The  death  of  Pinkney  and  the  disqualification  of  Martin 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    139 

soon  advanced  Taney  to  the  head  of  the  Maryland  bar.  It 
was  one  year  after  he  had  established  himself  in  Baltimore 
that  he  first  allied  himself  with  the  supporters  of  Andrew 
Jackson.  During  the  campaign  of  1824  was  published  a  letter 
written  by  Jackson  to  Madison  seven  years  before,  urging 
the  recognition  of  those  Federalists  who  had  broken  with 
their  party  to  support  the  War  of  1812,  and  suggesting  the 
name  of  Colonel  Drayton  of  South  Carolina.1  Discriminating 
between  the  anti-war  Federalists  and  the  pro-war  Federal 
ists,  Jackson  here  declared  that  had  he  been  commander  of 
the  military  department  in  which  the  Hartford  Convention 
was  held,  he  would  have  court-martialed  the  three  leaders 
of  the  Convention.  This  announcement  of  his  views  had  at 
tracted  to  his  standard  many  pro-war  Federalists  of  Mary 
land,  and  the  most  notable  acquisition  was  Roger  B.  Taney. 
He  was  impelled  to  his  course  with  no  thought  of  political 
reward.  His  whole  mind  and  heart  were  in  his  profession. 
Jackson  knew  nothing  of  Taney's  partiality  at  the  time,  and 
only  learned  of  it  about  the  time  he  was  seeking  a  successor 
for  Berrien.  At  no  time  in  his  life  had  the  Maryland  lawyer 
been  so  thoroughly  satisfied  with  his  lot.  He  had  been  made 
Attorney-General  of  the  State  on  the  unanimous  recommen 
dation  of  the  bar,  and  this  was  the  only  office  to  which  he 
ever  aspired.  It  was  in  line  with  his  work  and  left  him  at 
home  with  his  family  and  his  books.  Such  was  his  situation, 
when,  through  a  non-political  suggestion,  he  was  offered  the 
position  in  the  Cabinet  of  Jackson. 

At  this  time  he  was  in  his  fifty-fourth  year,  with  no  taste 
for  the  trickery  and  intrigues  of  politics,  and  he  asked  noth 
ing  better  for  his  leisure  hours  than  meditative  tramps 
through  the  woods,  a  canter  on  his  horse,  a  volume  of  poetry 
or  history,  or  the  delights  of  his  home,  presided  over  by  the 
sister  of  the  author  of  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner."  An  ar- 

1  Drayton  was  Congressman  from  Charleston  during  the  Nullification  fight  and 
strongly  supported  Jackson. 


140    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

dent  Catholic,  he  was  strict  in  the  observance  of  his  religious 
duties.  Always  vehement  in  his  views,  and  uncompromising 
in  his  convictions,  he  was  almost  unpleasantly  decisive  in  the 
expression  of  his  political  opinions.  Such  was  his  lofty  con 
ception  of  official  propriety  that  while  in  office  he  was  to  re 
fuse  to  accept  the  slightest  token  of  appreciation  from  people 
with  whom  he  had  official  relations.1  He  had  all  the  courtesy 
and  courtliness  of  his  culture,  all  the  caution  of  the  pains 
taking  lawyer,  and  all  the  circumspection  of  the  man  jealous 
of  his  honor.  He  was  to  become  the  most  virile  assistant  of 
Jackson  in  the  bitterest  fight  of  his  Presidency,  the  most 
trusted  of  his  Cabinet,  because  the  most  like  Jackson  in  the 
vigor  of  his  blows. 

VI 

To  describe  Lewis  Cass  as  an  American  politician  would  be 
damning  with  faint  praise,  for  he  was  something  infinitely 
more  and  greater  —  he  was  an  empire-builder  of  the  com 
pany  of  Clive  and  Rhodes,  one  of  the  most  robust  figures 
in  American  history.  His  first  remembered  view  of  the 
world  was  that  of  being  held  in  his  mother's  arms,  and 
looking  out  the  windows  of  his  New  Hampshire  home  upon 
the  bonfires  blazing  in  celebration  of  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution.  Crossing  the  Alleghanies  on  foot,  with  a  knap 
sack  on  his  back,  sleeping  beneath  the  stars,  his  Ameri 
canism  had  expanded  in  the  contemplation  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  Republic.  Riding  the  circuit,  as  Western  lawyers  did 
in  those  days,  he  was  a  witness  of  the  stubborn  battles 
against  the  wilderness,  and  he  had  enough  imagination  to  see, 
in  the  rough  men  wielding  axes,  Homeric  figures.  And  it  was 
while  pursuing  his  lonely  way  through  the  virgin  forests  of 

1  Tyler  relates  the  incident  of  a  personal  friend  of  Taney's,  temporarily  connected 
with  the  custom  house  in  New  York,  sending  him  a  box  of  cigars  without  his  card, 
while  he  was  Attorney-General.  Not  knowing  who  sent  them,  Taney  put  them 
aside.  After  leaving  office,  and  learning  the  donor's  identity,  he  wrote  an  apprecia 
tive  note  enclosing  the  price  of  the  cigars. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    141 

Ohio  that  he  found  time  for  the  assimilation  of  his  reading 
and  learned  to  be  the  independent  and  courageous  thinker  he 
became. 

He  had  established  a  sound  reputation  at  the  bar,  when 
the  War  of  1812  added  that  of  a  gallant  and  brilliant  soldier. 
To  him  especially  are  we  indebted  for  the  shameful  story  of 
Hull's  cowardly  surrender  of  Detroit  —  an  act  so  maddening 
that  Cass  broke  his  sword  in  protest.  But  his  reputation  as 
lawyer  and  soldier  pales  by  comparison  with  the  reputation 
he  was  to  make  as  an  empire-builder. 

Never  was  a  ruler  confronted  by  more  disheartening  diffi 
culties  than  Cass,  when,  in  1813,  he  became  the  civil  Gover 
nor  of  Michigan.  For  two  years  he  was  forced  to  battle 
against  anarchy  and  famine.  Organized  society  was  demor 
alized.  The  country  was  disorganized.  The  savages  had 
driven  away  the  cattle  of  the  settlers,  and  the  French  espe 
cially  were  in  desperate  straits.  The  war-whoops  of  the  red 
men  had  so  terrorized  the  people  that  they  were  afraid  to  set 
tle  down  to  the  cultivation  of  the  land.  The  morale  of  the 
Territory  was  pathetically  low.  And  Cass,  with  the  empire- 
builder's  decision  and  genius,  instantly  formed  his  plan  to 
combat  the  threatened  disintegration.  The  people  had  to  be 
fed  —  he  fed  them  from  the  public  stores,  drew  upon  the 
Government  for  further  assistance,  personally  directed  the 
battle  against  famine  —  and  won.  The  confidence  of  the  peo 
ple  had  to  be  restored  as  a  preliminary  to  progress  —  he  de 
termined  to  restore  it  by  demonstrating  his  mastery  of  the 
savages.  Organizing  the  young  men,  he  personally  led  them 
against  the  Indians  in  a  bloody  skirmish  —  and  won.  He  re 
peated  it  —  and  won.  Again  —  and  won.  And  thus  the  ter 
ror  of  the  people  passed,  and  they  returned  to  their  homes. 

He  then  turned  to  the  organization  of  civil  government. 
Courts  were  created,  civil  officers  selected,  territorial  divi 
sions  established,  new  counties  were  carved,  and  he  began  an 
elaborate  policy  of  road-building  and  internal  improvements. 


142    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  establish  a  school  system,  and  to 
encourage  the  building  of  churches  with  the  assurance  of  re 
ligious  liberty. 

This  accomplished,  he  turned  with  his  usual  zeal  to  the 
Americanizing  of  the  people,  many  of  whom  were  French, 
and  to  encouraging  the  migration  of  colonists.  Knowing  the 
industry  and  energy  of  his  native  New  England,  he  planned 
to  draw  immigrants  from  that  section  hoping  that  the  French 
would  learn  by  their  success  to  emulate  their  example.  But 
here  he  had  another  battle  to  overcome  the  general  notion  of 
the  Eastern  States  that  the  land  of  Michigan  was  valueless. 
In  time  he  succeeded. 

And  then  he  found  time  to  challenge  the  right  of  the  Brit 
ish  across  the  border  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  the  Terri 
tory.  In  those  days  Michigan  was  only  a  Territory  on  the 
outskirts,  and  it  was  easier  for  the  National  Government  to 
ignore  insults  than  to  challenge  a  mighty  empire  by  protest 
ing  against  them.  As  late  as  1816  vessels  were  stopped  on 
their  way  to  Detroit  and  searched  by  British  agents.  Cass, 
with  lawyer-like  care,  collected  his  evidence,  transmitted  it  to 
Washington,  vigorously  protested  to  the  British  authorities 
—  and  won.1 

Nowhere,  perhaps,  does  his  vision  as  an  empire-builder,  shine 
more  luminously  than  in  his  letter  to  Calhoun,  Secretary  of 
War,  proposing  a  scientific  expedition  in  1819,  under  the  sanc 
tion  and  with  the  cooperation  of  the  Federal  Government.2 
This  was  the  programme  of  a  statesman.  And  he  asked  for 
experts  for  the  expedition  —  engineers,  zoologists,  botanists, 
mineralogists.  Determining  to  accompany  the  expedition,  it 
is  interesting  to  note  the  sagacity  of  the  reason  he  assigns:  "I 
think  it  very  important  to  carry  the  flag  of  the  United  States 
into  those  remote  sections  where  it  has  never  been  borne  by 

1  See  McLaughlin's  Life  of  Cass,  99,  100,  for  details  of  his  fight  against  British 
insults  and  interference. 

2  See  Smith's  Life  of  Cass  for  letter. 


MRS.  EATON  DEMOLISHES  THE  CABINET    143 

any  one  in  public  station."  This  was  the  most  important  ex 
pedition  ever  undertaken  by  the  American  Government  up  to 
that  time,  and  was  so  regarded  by  the  press  of  the  period. 

If  we  add  to  this,  his  successful  negotiations  of  treaties 
with  the  Indians  under  dramatic  circumstances,  we  have  the 
work  and  record  of  "The  Father  of  the  West"  —  empire- 
builder  from  1813  until  he  entered  the  Cabinet  of  Jackson 
in  1831. 

And  this  man  of  action,  fighting  life-and-death  battles  on 
the  fringe  of  civilization,  found  time  for  the  gratification  of 
literary  tastes.  Here  he  suggests  the  Roosevelt  of  a  much 
later  day.  When  starting  forth  on  an  expedition  into  the 
wilderness,  it  was  his  custom  to  supply  himself  with  a  small 
library  for  his  entertainment  while  floating  in  canoes  on  the 
rivers  or  the  lakes.  His  articles  in  later  years  disclose  the 
scholar.1  Just  before  entering  the  Cabinet  he  had  delivered 
a  scholarly  address  at  Hamilton  College  which  has  been  pre 
served  in  a  number  of  the  popular  collections  of  orations.2 

Livingston  the  Nationalist. 

Cass,  the  Empire-Builder. 

Taney,  the  Crusader. 

Out  of  the  career  of  any  one  of  these  might  be  woven  a 
romance.  All  were  of  heroic  mould,  veritable  Plutarchian 
figures.  And  we  shall  see  that  the  time  had  arrived  when 
Jackson  would  need  the  wisest  and  most  courageous  of 
counselors  —  for  Henry  Clay  was  returning  in  shining  armor 
to  lead  the  bitterest  of  partisan  battles  against  the  Adminis 
tration. 

1  "France:  Its  King,  Court  and  Government";  "Three  Hours  at^St.  Cloud's"; 
and  "The  Modern  French  Judicature."  He  also,  on  the  request  of  Jackson,  wrote  the 
best  account  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans. 

2  See  McLaughlin's  Life  of  Cass;  Young's  biography,  written  during  Cass's  life 
time,  in  Smith's  Life  of  Cass. 


CHAPTER  VI 

KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS 
I 

FROM  the  beginning  the  virile,  militant,  driving  factors  behind 
Jackson's  policies  were  found  outside  his  official  family.  The 
"Kitchen  Cabinet,"  so  called  in  derision,  was  more  influential 

\  in  the  moulding  of  events  than  the  old-fashioned,  conven 
tional  statesmen  who  advised  their  chief  in  the  seclusion 
of  the  Cabinet  room.  Had  Jackson  depended  wholly  on  his 
Cabinet  for  the  support  of  his  policies,  he  would  have  been 
constantly  confused  by  divided  counsels.  On  scarcely  any  of 
the  vital  issues  of  his  Presidency  did  he  have  the  hearty  coop 
eration  of  his  constitutional  advisers.  But  never  before,  nor 
since,  has  any  President  been  served  by  such  tireless  organ 
izers  of  the  people,  such  masters  of  mass  psychology,  such 

N  geniuses  in  the  art  of  publicity  and  propaganda.  These  men, 
Ajie  small  but  loyal  and  sleepless  group  of  the  Kitchen  Cajbi- 
net,  were  the  first  of  America's  great  practical  politicians^) 

Of  ,this  grpugjthe piaster  jnind  was  Amos  Kendalhborn  in 
a  NewEnglanoTfarmhouse  in  tne  latter  days  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  youth,  he  preferred  study  to  play,  and  because 
of  a  premature  solemnity  he  was  familiarly  known  as  "The 
Deacon."  His  timidity  was  as  painful  as  that  which  tortured 
Charlotte  Bronte.  The  stupid  act  of  a  teacher  in  ridiculing 
his  reading  of  an  oration  came  near  putting  a  period  to  his 
education,  and  at  Dartmouth  he  was  almost  moved  to  tears 
by  professorial  praise  of  one  of  his  essays.  His  college  days 
were  so  serious  and  laborious  that  his  health  suffered,  and  his 
constitution  was  impaired.  He  played  no  pranks  and  had  no 
dissipations.  Taking  his  politics  seriously,  the  overwhelming 
preponderance  of  Federalists  did  not  restrain  him  from  bellig- 


AMOS  KENDALL 

From  an  engraving  in  the  Democratic  Review,  March,  1838,  after  a  drawing  by 
Charles  Fenderick 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  145 

erently  espousing  the  cause  of  the  minority.  It  is  significant 
of  his  instinctive  bent  that  when  he  turned  to  politics  he  shed 
his  timidity  and  stood  forth  a  passionate  militant.  Gradu 
ating  from  the  college  that  Webster  loved,  he  declined  his 
diploma,  partly  because  of  indifference,  but  largely  because 
of  his  personal  dislike  of  the  president.  Thus  early  he  enter 
tained  no  illusions,  and  had  the  courage  of  both  his  convic 
tions  and  his  prejudices. 

Meanwhile  the  second  war  with  England  was  on,  and  he 
was  beginning  to  detest  the  New  England  Federalists  for 
their  disloyalty  and  illiberality.  The  pulpits  rang  with  bitter 
denunciations  of  Madison,  and  ministers  proclaimed  from 
the  pulpits  that  Democrats  were  "irreligious  profligates."  l 
In  Boston,  Kendall  heard  the  eloquent  Harrison  Gray  Otis 
ferociously  denounce  the  war,  and  he  hastened  home  to 
enlist,  to  be  rejected  for  physical  disabilities. 

In  his  twenty-fifth  year  he  set  forth  from  his  bleak  New 
Hampshire  home  to  seek  his  fortune,  and  we  are  able  to  sense 
the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  youth  from  the  jottings  of  his 
journal.  At  Boston  he  heard  Edward  Everett  whom  he 
thought  a  "youth  of  great  promise."  At  Washington  he 
attended  a  White  House  levee,  finding  Dolly  Madison  "a 
noble  and  dignified  person,"  the  President's  "personal  ap 
pearance  very  inferior,"  and  meeting  Felix  Grundy  and 
Lewis  Cass.  Thence  he  passed  down  the  Ohio,  a  guest  of 
Major  Barry,  and  became  a  citizen  of  Kentucky. 

At  Lexington  he  entered  the  home  of  Henry  Clay,  en 
gaged  by  Mrs.  Clay  as  a  tutor  for  the  children.  In  later 
years,  when  he  was  the  mysterious  power  in  the  Jackson 
Administration,  and  Clay  the  leader  of  the  Opposition,  the 
drawing-rooms  of  Washington  buzzed  with  a  fantastic  tale, 
intended  to  prove  his  depravity  and  ingratitude.  Harriet 
Martineau,2  while  in  the  capital,  heard  it  and  incorporated 
it  in  her  book.  According  to  this  story  "tidings  reached  Mr. 

1  Kendall's  Autobiography,  73.  *  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  i,  156. 


146    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  Mrs.  Clay  one  evening  that  a  young  man,  solitary  and 
poor,  lay  ill  of  a  fever  in  a  noisy  hotel  in  the  town.  Mrs.  Clay 
went  down  in  the  carriage  without  delay,  and  brought  the 
sufferer  home  to  her  house,  where  she  nursed  him  with  her 
own  hands  till  he  recovered.  Mr.  Clay  was  struck  with  the 
talents  of  the  young  man  and  retained  him  as  a  tutor  of  his 
sons,  heaping  benefits  upon  him  with  characteristic  bounty." 
Unhappily  for  the  tale,  Kendall  was  not  ill,  Mr.  Clay  was  at 
Geneva  at  the  time  of  his  employment  and  during  the  entire 
period  of  his  stay  in  Ashland,  and  the  "benefits  heaped  upon 
him"  consisted  of  $300  a  year  with  board  and  lodging,  and 
the  privilege  of  using  Mr.  Clay's  library.  Soon  after  leaving 
the  service  of  the  Clays,  we  find  him  recording  in  his  diary: 
"Rode  to  Lexington  and  visited  H.  Clay.  I  found  him  a  very 
agreeable  man,  and  was  familiarly  acquainted  with  him  in 
half  an  hour." 

However,  his  sojourn  at  Ashland  was  pleasurable  and 
profitable.  Mrs.  Clay,  deeply  interested  in  him,  chaffed  him 
on  his  timidity,  criticized  the  stiffness  of  his  bows,  and  drove 
him  to  his  room  to  practice  before  the  mirror,  admitted  him 
to  her  social  gatherings,  called  upon  him  to  read  his  poetry 
to  her  friends,  and  rallied  him  about  his  love  affairs.  Thus 
the  "mediocre"  and  vulgar  "writer  for  pay"  of  the  Jack 
son  regime  was  once  considered  fit  for  the  social  circle  in  the 
home  of  Henry  Clay. 

Scarcely  had  he  been  admitted  to  the  bar  when  he  was 
enticed  by  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson  into  the  editorship 
of  the  "Georgetown  Patriot";  and  it  is  illuminative  of  his 
character  to  find  him,  when  the  slayer  of  Tecumseh,  a  little 
later,  upbraided  him  for  refusing  personally  to  abuse  the 
Opposition,  writing  in  his  diary:  "I  shall  give  Richard  my 
vote,  but  I  shall  not  be  his  tool." 1  His  editorials  constructive, 
his  specialty  banking  and  currency,  he  soon  found  himself  in 
the  editorial  chair  of  the  "Frankfort  Argus,"  where  he  was 

'  l  Kendall's  Autobiography,  175. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  .         147 

instantly  engaged  in  bitter  political  controversies.  Whether 
in  argument,  where  he  excelled,  in  invective,  or  in  wit,  he 
invariably  scored  heavily  on  the  Opposition.  For  his  genera 
tion  and  community,  his  editorial  code  was  lofty.  He  prom 
ised  himself  never  knowingly  to  misrepresent;  if,  through 
mistake,  he  did,  to  rectify  the  mistake  without  being  asked; 
never  to  retract  a  statement  he  thought  true;  to  resent  an 
insult  in  kind;  to  defend  himself,  if  assaulted,  by  any  means 
necessary,  even  to  killing,  and  never  to  run.  So  great  was  his 
professional  self-respect  that  on  one  occasion,  when  vulgarly 
assailed  in  an  Opposition  paper,  he  had  his  answer  printed  in 
bill  form  and  circulated  by  hand,  rather  than  befoul  his  own 
journal  with  a  suitable  reply. 

In  seeming  contradiction,  however,  we  have  his  merci 
less  bombardment  of  the  unfortunate  Shadrach  Penn,  editor 
of  a  Louisville  paper,  who  had  a  genius  for  attracting  the 
ridicule  of  his  intellectual  superiors;  for  while  Kendall  was 
peppering  him  from  Frankfort,  George  D.  Prentice  was 
bombarding  him  from  Louisville,  and  between  the  two,  he 
was  driven  whimpering  from  the  State.1 

The  physical  courage  of  Kendall  may  be  read  in  his  en 
counters  with  irate  victims.  In  one  controversy  he  was 
spared  the  necessity  of  killing  an  assailant  with  a  dirk  by  the 
timely  interference  of  friends.  In  another  he  put  an  opponent 
to  flight  by  cracking  a  whip  and  displaying  the  sparkling 
silver  handle  in  the  sun.  He  never  ran.  \ *.- 

Under  his  editorship  the  "Argus"  became  a  powerful 
political  factor  in  Kentucky.  He  inaugurated  the  plan  of 
printing  legislative  speeches,  specialized  on  political  news, 
intelligently  discussed  international  affairs,  launched  a  cam 
paign  in  favor  of  public  schools,  reviewed  contemporary 
books,  dipped  into  religious  subjects  with  his  "Sunday  Re 
flections,"  and  significantly  began  a  fight  against  the  Na 
tional  Bank  in  a  series  of  articles  combating  the  Supreme 
1  Henry  Watterson's  oration  on  Prentice,  "Compromises  of  Life." 


148    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Court  decision  as  to  its  constitutionality.  If,  thirteen  years 
later,  he  was  not  to  flinch  under  the  lashings  of  the  Bank 
press,  it  may  have  been  because  he  had  become  seasoned 
to  the  punishment  more  than  a  decade  before  when  he  was 
described  as  a  "political  incendiary." 

His  friendly  relations  with  Clay  were  maintained  at  least 
until  the  autumn  of  1827,  when,  on  a  trip  to  New  Hampshire, 
he  wrote  his  wife  of  dining  with  the  orator  in  Washington. 
But  the  campaign  of  1828  found  Kendall  and  the  "Argus" 
valiant  in  the  cause  of  Jackson,  with  Clay  and  his  friends 
"casting  aspersions  upon  his  motives  and  character."  1  In 
revenge  for  these  attacks  he  sought  the  privilege  of  taking 
the  electoral  vote  of  Kentucky  to  Washington.  Meanwhile, 
after  the  election,  and  before  his  departure,  he  had  been 
informed  by  an  emissary  from  the  Hermitage  that  Jackson 
intended  to  offer  him  an  appointment. 

The  Kendall  lingering  at  the  capital  awaiting  an  appoint 
ment  presents  an  interesting  study.  It  is  disappointing  to 
note  a  certain  humility  and  manner  usually  associated  with 
the  lower  order  of  place-hunters.  He  was  evidently  ardent 
in  his  pursuit  of  a  position.  His  inexperience  is  disclosed  in 
his  disgust  on  finding  so  many  obscure  politicians  pretending 
to  the  distinction  of  having  elected  Jackson.  And  yet,  so 
anxious  was  he  for  place,  that  he  was  willing  to  accept  one 
paying  an  inadequate  salary,  and  he  wrote  his  wife  that  in 
that  event  he  might  persuade  Duff  Green  to  pay  him  $1000 
a  year  for  writing  for  the  "Telegraph."  2  During  the  weeks 
of  waiting  before  the  inauguration,  he  was  not  a  little  em 
barrassed  for  funds,  and  yet,  under  these  drab  conditions, 
he  did  not  lack  for  invitations  of  a  social  nature.  Meeting 
General  Macomb  and  finding  him  "a  Jackson  man,"  he 
expressed  the  hope  that  he  might  "find  him  a  valuable 
acquaintance."  3  Meanwhile  he  was  investigating  houses  and 

1  Kendall's  Autobiography,  303. 

2  Ibid.,  278.        »  Ibid..  279. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  149 

rents,  and  concluded  to  economize  by  taking  a  house  in 
Georgetown.  "The  house  I  contemplate  taking,"  he  wrote, 
"is  in  a  charming  neighborhood  on  First  Street,  near  Cox's 
Row." 

Receiving  his  appointment  as  Fourth  Auditor,  he  dropped 
from  public  view.  Dinners  and  parties  saw  him  no  more.  He 
immediately  assumed  the  role  of  a  recluse.  Taking  his  duties 
seriously,  he  uncovered  the  crimes  of  his  predecessor  and 
sent  him  to  jail.  His  rules  for  the  conduct  of  subordinates 
were  such  as  to  merit  the  approval  of  business  men  —  rules 
that  the  office-holder  of  those  days  scarcely  understood. 
After  a  week  in  office  he  wrote  his  wife:  "The  labor  is  vei 
light,  and  when  I  am  master  of  the  laws  under  which  I  act, 
will  consist  of  little  more  than  looking  at  accounts  and  sign 
ing  my  name."  Thus  we  find  him  systematizing  his  work 
to  dedicate  the  greater  portion  of  his  time  to  the  political 
work  of  the  Administration.  "Hamilton,"  said  Martin  Van 
Buren,  a  month  later,  "Kendall  is  to  be  an  influential  man. 
I  wish  the  President  would  invite  him  to  dinner,  and  if  you 
have  no  objection,  as  you  are  so  intimate  with  the  General, 
I  wish  you  would  propose  to  him  to  invite  Kendall  to  meet 
us  at  dinner  to-morrow."  1  The  invitation  was  extended  and 
accepted,  and  the  Red  Fox,  who  had  a  genius  for  picking 
/  men,  was  notably  attentive  to  the  timid  subordinate. 

During  the  five  years  he  held  his  inferior  post,  Kendall 
became  more  powerful  than  any  Cabinet  Minister  in  the 
determination  of  Jacksonian  policies.  A  little  later,  a  con 
temporary  observer  of  men  at  the  capital  described  him  as 
"secretive,  yet  audacious  in  his  political  methods,  a  power 
ful  and  ready  writer,  #nd  the  author  of  many  of  Jackson's 
ablest  State  papers."  2  „  There  in  his  office  we  may  picture 
him,  alone,  with  pad  and  pencil,  preparing  elaborate  politi 
cal  war  maps,  and  literature  for  propaganda,  or  in  earnest 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  130. 

2  Rufus  Rockwell  Wilson,  Washington  the  Capital  City,  i,  263. 


k          ,/  >*'  ^ 

I 

^^•* 

150    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

conversation  with  Lewis  and  other  members  of  the  Kitchen 
Cabinet,  forging  thunderbolts  with  which  to  smite  the  foe. 
And  it  was  very  soon  after  he  had  left  this  subordinate  post 
that  Harrie^Martineau  was  impressed  with  the  uncanny 
mystery  of  the  k< invincible  Amos  Kendall." 

"I  was  fortunate  enough."  she  wrote,  "to  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  invincible  Amos  Kendall,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
[men  in  America.    He  is  supposed  to  be  the  moving  spring  of 
:he  Administration;  the  thinker,  the  planner,  the  doer;  but 
it  is  all  in  the  dark/ Documents  are  issued,  the  excellence  of 
which  prevents  them  from  being  attributed  to  the  persons 
,^J:hat  take  the  responsibility  for  them;  a  correspondence  is 
rkept  up  all  over  the  country,  for  which  no  one  seems  answer- 
*  able;  work  is  done  of  goblin  extent  and  with  goblin  speed, 
which  makes  men  look  about  them  with  superstitious  wonder; 
i  and  the  invincible  Amos  Kendall  has  the  credit  for  it  all. 
(President  Jackson's  letters  to  his  Cabinet  are  said  to  be  Ken- 
aalPs;  the  report  on  Sunday  mails  is  attributed  to  Kendall; 
the  letters  sent  from  Washington  to  remote  country  news 
papers,   whence  they  are  collected  and  published  in  the 
'  Globe '  as  demonstrations  of  public  opinion,  are  pronounced 
to  be  written  by  Kendall;  and  it  is  some  relief  that  he  now, 
having  the  office  of  Postmaster-General,  affords  opportunity 
for  open  attack  upon  this  twilight  personage.  He  is  undoubt 
edly  a  great  genius.   He  unites  with  all  his  'great  talents  for 
silence'  a  splendid  audacity^  '' 

"It  is  clear  he  could  ndt  do  the  work  he  does  if  he  went 
into  society  like  other  men.  He  did,  however,  one  evening. 
.  .  .  The  moment  I  went  in,  intimations  reached  me  from  all 
quarters,  amid  nods  and  winks,  'Kendall  is  here,'  'There  he 
is.'  I  saw  at  once  that  his  plea  for  seclusion  (bad  health)  is 
no  false  one.  The  extreme  sallowness  of  his  complexion,  the 
hair  of  such  perfect  whiteness  as  is  rarely  seen  in  a  man  of 
middle  age,  testified  to  his  disease.1  His  countenance  does  not 
1  Kendall  is  thus  described  at  forty-five. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  151 

help  the  superstitious  to  throw  off  their  dread  of  him.  He 
probably  does  not  desire  this  superstition  to  melt  away,  for 
there  is  no  calculating  how  much  influence  is  given  the  Jack 
son  Administration  by  the  universal  belief  that  there  is  a 
concealed  eye  and  hand  behind  the  machinery  of  Govern 
ment,  by  which  everything  could  be  foreseen,  and  the  hardest 
deeds  done.  A  member  of  Congress  told  me  this  night  that 
he  had  watched  through  five  sessions  for  a  sight  of  Kendall, 
and  had  never  obtained  one  until  now.  Kendall  was  leaning 
on  a  chair,  his  head  bent  down,  and  eyes  glancing  up  at  a 
member  of  Congress  with  whom  he  was  in  earnest  conversa 
tion,  and  in  a  moment  he  was  gone."  1  ^ 
Such  was  the  cleverest,  most  audacious,  and  powerful 
member  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  —  a  man  who  made  history 
that  historians  have  written  and  ascribed  to  others  who 
merely  uttered  the  words  or  registered  the  will  of  this  in 
domitable  journalist  and  politician. 

n 

WHEN  Jackson  left  the  Hermitage,  he  was  accompanied  by 
Major  William  B.  LeWls,  who  had  been  intimately  identified 
with  his  campaign  for  the  Presidency.  This  unobtrusive  man 
found  lodgment  with  his  chief  at  Gadsby's,  where  he  inter 
ested  himself  in  analyzing  the  characters  of  office-seekers  for 
the  guidance  of  his  friend.  After  walking  with  Jackson  from 
the  hotel  to  the  Capitol,  and  seeing  him  inducted  into  office, 
he  announced  his  plan  to  return  to  the  quiet  life  of  Tennessee. 

"Why,  Major,"  exclaimed  the  astonished  Jackson,  "you 
are  not  going  to  leave  me  here  alone,  after  doing  more  than 
any  other  man  to  bring  me  here ! " 

Moved  by  the  sincerity  of  the  appeal,  Lewis  remained  on  in 

Washington  through  the  eight  years  of  the  reign,  living  at  the 

White  House,  and  enjoying  a  greater  personal  intimacy  with 

the  President  than  any  other  politician  of  the  time.  Accepting 

1  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  i,  155-57. 


152    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

an  insignificant  auditorship  at  the  Treasury  as  an  excuse  for 
staying  on,  he  interpreted  his  real  function  as  that  of  a  politi 
cal  bodyguard.  He  came  and  went  in  the  President's  private 
apartments  at  will.  No  formalities  were  interposed  between 
these  two  strangely  different  men.  No  secrets  formed  a  veil. 
In  the  midst  of  the  bitter  fights  against  his  idol,  Lewis  moved 
quietly  and  uncannily  about,  gauging  sentiment,  determin 
ing  the  drift,  analyzing  men  and  motives,  guarding  Jackson 
against  the  surprise  attack.  When  the  ferocious  onslaughts 
were  at  their  worst  in  the  Senate,  Lewis  could  be  found 
somewhere  in  the  shadows  of  the  chamber  watching  every 
movement  of  the  enemy,  and  critically,  if  not  always  wisely, 
passing  judgment  upon  the  strategy  of  the  Administration 
forces;  and  when  the  fight  was  over,  Jhe  hastened  to  the 
White  House,  sure  to  find  Jackson  sitting  up  in  his  room 
with  the  picture  of  Rachel  and  her  Bible  on  the  table  before 
him,  awaiting  the  report. 

There  was  this  difference  between  Lewis  and  the  other 
members  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  —  they  all  loved  Jackson; 
but  where  the  others  thought  of  him  as  the  personification 
of  a  party,  Lewis  could  only  think  of  him  as  the  friend  of  the 
Hermitage.  He  had  fought  and  wrought  for  his  election,  not 
to  score  a  party  victory,  but  to  vindicate  the  man.  Of  Jack 
son's  comfort,  happiness,  and  prestige  he  was  supremely 
jealous,  but  there  were  times  when  he  rebelled  against  the 
audacious  proposals  of  others,  more  given  to  thinking  of 
party,  to  stake  the  General's  reputation  and  success  upon  a 
party  issue. 

He  has  been  called  the  "great  father  of  wire-pullers,"  l 
a  closet  man's  definition  of  a  great  manipulator  of  men.  At 
the  time  the  public  began  to  speculate  on  the  presidential 
possibilities  of  Jackson,  the  Major  was  his  neighbor.  He 
was  not  a  penniless  adventurer  or  soldier  of  fortune.  There 
was  nothing  in  politics  for  himself  for  which  he  cared  a 
1  Simmer's  Life  of  Jackson. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  153 

bauble.  He  was  living  comfortably  on  his  large  productive 
plantation,  with  slaves  in  the  fields,  and  books  in  the  library. 
Jackson  had  learned  to  love  and  trust  him  years  before  when 
he  was  chief  quartermaster  on  the  General's  staff  in  the 
campaign  of  1812-15,  and  in  the  final  settlement  the  Govern 
ment  was  found  to  be  indebted  to  him  to  the  amount  of  three 
cents  —  which  was  never  paid.  When  the  Jackson  move 
ment  became  serious,  the  Major,  knowing  the  General's 
strength  and  weaknesses,  took  charge  of  all  confidential 
matters.  To  just  what  extent  he  contributed  to  Jackson's 
election  no  one  ever  knew  —  but  all  knew  that  he  had  played 
an  important  part.  He  conducted  all  the  correspondence, 
and  carefully  scrutinized,  and  often  revised,  the  General's 
letters;  and  another  of  his  functions  was  to  serve  as  a  sort  of 
valet  for  all  State  occasions  when  Jackson  should  be  care 
fully  groomed. 

He  possessed  the  qualities  that  Jackson  lacked.  Where 
Jackson  was  impulsive,  he  was  deliberative;  where  Jackson 
was  prejudiced,  he  was  tolerant;  where  Jackson  was  rash, 
-  he  was  prudent,  if  not  timid;  where  Jackson  was  a  man  of 
action,  he  was  a  man  of  thought;  and  while  Jackson  had 
ideas,  he  furnished  the  vehicle  to  bear  them  in  parade.  Dur 
ing  the  many  months  preceding  the  election  of  1828,  this 
practical,  polished  politician  was  studying  the  political  war 
map,  and  quietly  planning  successful  battles  in  this  State 
and  that.  He  knew  the  politics  of  each  State,  the  personali 
ties  and  prejudices  entering  in,  the  dominating  motives  of 
all  politicians,  even  to  those  never  known  outside  their  own 
little  communities,  and  he  knew  how  to  play  one  force 
against  the  other  without  appearing  in  the  game.  Knowing 
as  he  did  all  the  cross-currents  of  local  politics,  nothing  ever 
arose  that  he  could  not  deal  with  intelligently. 

During  the  eight  years  in  the  White  House,  Lewis  was  a 
whole  regiment  of  Swiss  guards  —  always  on  duty  and  alert i 
"Keep  William  B.  Lewis  to  ferret  out  and  make  known  to 


; 


154    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

you  all  the  plots  and  intrigues  hatching  against  your  Ad 
ministration,  and  you  are  safe,"  was  Jackson's  advice  to 
Polk  when  the  latter  was  entering  the  White  House.  We 
shall  find  him  implicated  in  some  of  the  most  important 
events  of  his  time,  making  history,  and  yet  escaping  the 
historian.  His  great  advantage  was  his  perfect  understand 
ing  of  Jackson's  character.  He  often  became  a  buffer,  pro 
tecting  the  President  against  unpleasant  revelations.  If  he 
thought  a  disclosure  necessary  as  a  protection  to  the  grim 
old  warrior,  he  told  his  secret;  if  he  thought  it  would  merely 
arouse  to  useless  wrath,  he  buried  it;  and  sometimes,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Crawford  letter,  he  bided  his  time  for  months 
before  revealing  it.  All  the  politicians  of  his  day  passed  in 
review  before  him,  Democrats  and  Whigs,  Nullifiers  and 
Nationalists,  friends  and  enemies,  and  he  silently  catalogued 
them  through  a  Bertillon  system  of  his  own.  His  advice  to 
Jackson  was  that  of  a  friend  to  a  friend,  seated  about  the 
blazing  White  House  hearth,  discussing  politics  and  men  in 
the  midst  of  the  tobacco  smoke,  as  they  might  have  done 
in  the  private  life  of  the  Hermitage. 

He  did  not  possess  Kendall's  genius  for  programmes,  nor 
Blair's  for  propaganda,  but  he  was  invaluable  in  the  field  of 
personalities.  He  alone  of  the  three  sometimes  doubted  and 
drew  back  in  fear.  When  Jackson  vetoed  the  Maysville  Bill, 
Van  Buren  found  Lewis's  countenance  "to  the  last  degree  de 
spondent."  1  He  dreaded  and  doubted  the  effect  of  the  veto 
of  the  measure  rechartering  the  Bank,  and  later,  the  with 
drawal  of  the  deposits.  Having  been  Federalistic  himself,  in 
other  days,  he  had  a  fellow  feeling  for  Louis  McLane  when 
that  politician  found  himself  in  trouble.  But  doubting  and 
trembling  though  he  sometimes  was,  Van  Buren  has  testified 
that  "no  considerations  or  temptations,  through  many  of 
which  he  was  obliged  to  pass,  could  weaken  his  fidelity  to  the 
General  or  his  desire  for  the  success  of  his  Administration."  2 

*  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  325.  2  Ibid.,  579. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  155 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  Bank  controversy,  he  alone  of  the 
members  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  maintained  friendly  rela 
tions  with  Biddle.1 

Concerning  his  status  among  the  Jacksonian  leaders, 
biographers  and  historians  have  radically  disagreed.  Even 
among  the  later  writers  this  disagreement  persists,  and  where 
one  dismisses  the  theory  that  he  was  a  politician,  far-sighted 
and  astute,  as  without  sufficient  evidence,2  another  concludes 
that  "in  a  day  of  astute  politicians,  Major  Lewis  was  one  of 
the  cleverest."  3  The  truth  appears  to  be  that  while  he  was 
not  a  moulder  of  policies  and  creator  of  programmes,  he 
was  one  of  the  most  clever  manipulators  of  men  and  masters 
of  personal  intrigue  who  ever  served  a  President.  In  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet  he  was  the  personal  manager  — Jhe  political 
secretary^ 

m 

THE  most  militant  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  was  Isaac  Hill, 
whose  name  was  anathema  to  the  Federalists  of  New  Eng 
land.  A  poor  boy  educated  in  a  printshop,  slight  and  lame, 
hurling  picturesque  phrases  and  bitter  reproaches  at  the 
powerful  enemy,  excoriating  it  with  his  satire  and  sarcasm, 
and  slashing  it  with  the  keen  blade  of  his  wit,  it  is  not  sur 
prising  that  the  impression  handed  down  by  the  Intellectuals 
of  the  Opposition  is  unfavorable.  Where  they  have  not  dis 
missed  him  with  a  shrug,  they  have  damned  him  as  a  dunce 
—  and  largely  because  he  gave  virility  to  a  minority  and 
made  it  militant,  and,  despite  overwhelming  odds,  estab 
lished  in  the  hotbed  of  prescriptive  Federalism  a  vigorous 
Democratic  paper  which  was  quoted  from  New  Orleans  to 

1  In  the  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle  (Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  1919)  are 
numerous  letters  between  the  banker  and  Lewis,  indicative  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  latter  to  conciliate  the  former  and  save  his  chief  from  the  hazards  of  a  bitter 
fight. 

2  Professor  J.  S.  Bassett's  Life  of  Jackson,  n,  399. 

3  Professor  Frederic  Austin  Ogg's  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson. 


156    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Detroit,  and  from  Boston  to  St.  Louis.  If  he  lacked  the 
depth  and  the  constructive  faculty  of  Kendall,  and  the 
literary  finish  of  Blair,  he  possessed  a  genius  as  a  phrase 
monger  which  spread  his  fame  and  served  his  party,  and  in 
the  heat  of  a  campaign,  one  of  his  stinging  paragraphs  was 
as  effective  as  one  of  Kendall's  leaders.  There  was  no 
finesse  in  his  fighting  —  he  fought  out  in  the  open,  in  full 
range  of  his  foe,  and  with  any  weapon  on  which  he  could  lay 
his  hands.  If  the  intensity  of  his  partisanship  amounted  to 
unfairness,  it  had  been  made  so  by  the  intolerance  and 
bigotry  of  the  Opposition  of  his  section.  Since  no  member  of 
the  Kitchen  Cabinet  more  insistently  demanded  of  Jackson 
the  adoption  of  the  spoils  system,  it  is  not  unprofitable  to 
inquire  into  the  origin  of  his  state  of  mind. 

His  life  was  a  tragedy.  Born  in  abject  poverty,  a  cripple 
from  childhood,  he  had  seen  his  father  and  grandfather 
become  mental  wrecks.  Under  this  cloud,  in  this  state  of 
penury,  he  looked  out  upon  the  world.  Shut  off  by  his  in 
firmity  from  physical  labor,  he  had  no  money  for  an  educa 
tion,  and  he  lived  on  an  unpromising  New  Hampshire  farm, 
where  there  were  no  schools,  libraries,  or  books,  and  few 
papers.  But  before  he  was  eight  he  had  read  the  Bible 
through.  Two  years  before  he  had  read  the  story  of  the 
Revolution  from  books  borrowed,  and  had  supplemented  his 
reading  by  having  a  relative,  who  had  fought  with  Washing 
ton,  describe  the  burning  of  Charlestown  and  the  Concord 
fight.  There  was  infinite  pathos  in  his  passion  for  the  printed 
page.  But  college  was  out  of  the  question,  the  printing-office 
the  only  possible  substitute,  and  thus,  after  a  long  appren 
ticeship,  he  took  over  a  wobbling  paper  at  Concord  and  be 
came  an  editor. 

Throwing  discretion  to  the  winds  and  with  a  sublime 
audacity,  he  took  up  the  challenge  of  the  powerful  majority; 
and  it  required  courage  to  pursue  that  course  in  the  New 
Hampshire  of  1809.  To  be  a  Democrat  (Republican)  there 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS    \      157 

in  those  days  was  to  offend  God;  boldly  to  preach  hostility 
to  Federalism  was  to  proclaim  blasphemy  and  invite  destruc 
tion.  The  Federalistic  press  opened  their  batteries  of  abuse 
upon  the  obscure  youth.  One  paper  solemnly  announced 
the  discovery  that  he  was  a  direct  descendant  of  the  witches 
who  had  suffered  at  Salem.  Hill  returned  a  spirited  fire,  and 
rejoiced  in  the  combat.  "I  have  hit  them,  for  they  flutter," 
he  said.1  In  the  campaign  of  1810  he  fairly  galvanized  the 
prostrate  friends  of  the  National  Administration  into  life 
and  incurred  an  unbelievable  hatred  of  the  Opposition. 
When  this  crippled  boy  was  brutally  assaulted  on  the  streets 
of  Concord,  the  Federalist  press  of  New  Hampshire  gloated 
over  the  attack.  Nor  was  it  above  sneering  at  his  infirmity. 

Throughout  the  War  of  1812  he  was  a  pillar  of  strength  to 
the  Republic  in  New  Hampshire.  During  the  darkest  days  it 
was  said  that  he  was  worth  a  thousand  soldiers  in  heartening 
the  patriots.2  With  the  approach  of  the  campaign  of  1828, 
Hill's  paper,  the  "Patriot,"  began  to  bombard  the  Adams 
Administration,  and  Clay,  who  was  to  shudder  later  at  the 
wickedness  of  the  spoils  system,  promptly  deprived  him  of 
the  public  printing. 

Thus  the  campaign  of  1828  began.  The  stinging  para 
graphs  of  Hill  made  the  rounds  of  the  Democratic  press  of 
the  country,  and  in  his  own  State  he  was  shamelessly  as 
sailed.  Not  satisfied  with  maligning  his  personal  character, 
his  enemies  stooped  to  references  to  the  insanity  of  his  father 
in  disseminating  the  story  that  he  was  crazy.8  In  view  of 
this  cruel  personal  persecution,  it  was  but  human  that,  on 
the  election  of  Jackson,  his  voice  should  have  been  for  war  on 
all  the  Federalist  office-holders.  Thus  his  psychology  is  easily 

1  Bradley'*  Life  of  Hill. 

2  General  Leavenworth's  letter,  quoted  in  Bradley's  Life  of  Hill. 

8  Hill  took  notice  of  this  brutality:  "There  is  an  Almighty  Power  Who  tempers 
the  wind  to  the  shorn  lambs,  Who  wih  preserve  us  from  such  a  calamity,  and  Who 
will  not  suffer  our  intellectual  vision  to  be  dimmed  until  our  work  shall  be  accom 
plished." 


158    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

understood.  Because  of  his  political  convictions,  he  had 
been  proscribed.  A  cripple,  he  had  been  personally  at 
tacked  in  the  streets.  In  suffering  he  had  been  ridiculed.  The 
insanity  of  his  father  had  been  made  the  subject  of  vulgar 
jests.  His  personal  character  had  been  assailed.  And  in  the 
hour  of  victory,  all  the  pent-up  hatred  of  the  years  was  let 
loose  upon  the  vanquished  foe. 

Hill  was  the  Marat  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  the  fanatic, 
calling  for  heads  —  more  heads  —  and  unseemly  in  his  mirth 
as  they  fell. 

In  appearance  he  was  not  prepossessing.  Below  the  me 
dium  height,  he  was  spare  as  well  as  crippled.  In  his  high 
forehead  and  the  expression  of  his  eyes  his  intellect  was  indi 
cated,  and  he  carried  himself  with  that  haughty  air  of  superi 
ority  which  men,  forced  to  fight  for  their  existence,  are  apt 
to  assume.  This  was  described  by  his  enemies  as  "demonia 
cal."  He  always  dressed  plainly  as  a  workingman.  Without 
imagination  or  dreams,  severely  practical  and  to  the  point, 
conscious  of  his  limitations,  and  passionately  devoted  to  both 
his  convictions  and  prejudices,  there  was  nothing  about  him 
to  appeal  to  the  fashionable  or  the  intellectually  elect.  In 
no  sense  dazzling  in  his  gifts,  hesitating  instead  of  eloquent, 
shocking  the  Senate  of  his  time  by  reading  his  speeches,  and 
proud  of  his  profession,  he  was  not  pointed  out  to  travelers 
who  wrote  books,  nor  lionized  in  the  drawing-rooms,  nor 
dignified  by  the  complimentary  notices  of  the  women  letter- 
writers  or  diarists  of  his  day.  He  has  come  down  largely  as 
his  enemies  have  painted  him,  and  their  very  hate  of  him 
discloses  his  effectiveness  as  a  politician. 

He  was  one  of  the  Republic's  first  uncompromising  parti 
sans —  "My  party,  right  or  wrong." 

IV 

AN  Administration  and  party  paper  had  been  considered 
important  in  the  political  circles  of  the  Republic  from  the 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  159 

beginning,  but  it  was  left  to  the  editors  of  the  Kitchen  Cab 
inet  to  develop  it  to  the  highest  degree  of  efficiency.  The 
"National  Journal,"  Court  paper  of  the  Adams  Administra 
tion,  had  awakened  the  Opposition  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
practical  value  of  a  powerful  party  paper.  Duff  Green  and 
the  "Telegraph,"  in  a  sense,  met  the  requirements,  but  even 
then  there  were  Democrats  of  influence  and  aspirations 
who  found  something  lacking.  To  Van  Buren,  the  editor, 
devoted  to  Calhoun,  was  unsatisfactory.  It  is  inconceivable 
that  he  felt  the  need  for  a  more  aggressive  pen  for  the  Oppo 
sition.  Nevertheless,  in  the  summer  of  1826,  while  planning 
a  more  vigorous  attack  on  the  Adams  Administration,  he 
had  an  "animated  conversation"  concerning  the  need  of  a 
strictly  party  paper  with  Calhoun,  at  the  latter's  house  in 
Georgetown.  The  Carolinian  urged  the  adoption  of  the 
"Telegraph"  as  the  party  organ,  with  Van  Buren  pressing 
the  advantage  of  prevailing  upon  Thomas  Ritchie  of  the 
"Richmond  Enquirer"  to  accept  the  editorship  of  a  new 
party  paper  at  the  capital.1  Failing  to  persuade  Calhoun,  the 
Red  Fox  cleverly  approached  Senator  Tazewell  of  Virginia, 
an  ardent  friend  of  the  Carolinian,  and  persuaded  him  to 
join  in  an  invitation  to  the  Richmond  journalist.2  Ritchie 
declined,  however,  on  the  ground  of  his  attachment  to 
Virginia  and  his  reluctance  to  leave  old  friends  and  asso 
ciates.3  Thus,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Administration,  it 
seemed  that  Duff  Green  and  the  "Telegraph"  were  destined 
to  become  the  pen  and  organ  of  the  Jacksonian  Democracy. 
At  a  White  House  levee  in  the  winter  of  1830-31,  under  the 
very  nose  of  Jackson,  and  under  his  roof,  the  intriguing  Green 
drew  the  proprietor  of  a  Washington  printing-house  aside  to 
tell  him  confidentially  of  the  hastening  rupture  of  Jackson 
and  Calhoun,  and  of  the  plans  in  incubation  for  the  advance 
ment  of  the  presidential  aspirations  of  the  latter.  Calhoun 

1  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  541. 

a  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie,  109.  » Ibid.,  247. 


160    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

organs  were  to  be  acquired  or  established  in  all  the  strategic 
political  points  in  the  country,  and  when  the  rupture  came 
these  were  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  "Telegraph"  in  a  nation 
wide  denunciation  of  Jackson.  The  printer  was  offered  the 
editorship  of  one  of  these  papers,  and  a  liberal  amount  for 
his  Washington  plant.  Thoroughly  devoted  to  the  political 
fortunes  of  the  President,  and  not  relishing  the  idea  of  being 
the  depositary  of  a  secret  which  threatened  the  President's 
position,  the  printer  consulted  freely  with  his  friends,  and,  on 
their  advice,  carried  the  story  to  the  White  House. 

Benton  tells  us  that  the  story  did  not  surprise  Jackson,  who 
was  "preparing  for  it."  1  Thus  we  are  told  that  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1830  he  had  been  impressed  with  a  powerful  editorial 
attack  on  Nullification  in  the  "Frankfort  Argus,"  had  made 
inquiries  as  to  the  identity  of  the  author,  and  had  authorized 
the  extension  of  an  invitation  to  assume  the  editorship  of  an 
Administration  paper  in  the  capital.  The  version  of  Benton 
differs  in  material  points  from  the  version  of  Amos  Kendall,2 
who  was  far  more  intimately  identified  with  the  launching  of 
the  new  paper  than  either  Benton  or  Van  Buren.  Here  we 
have  it  that  the  idea  was  not  Jackson's,  and  that  when  plans 
for  a  Jacksonian  organ  were  presented  to  him  "he  entirely 
disapproved."  At  that  time  Jackson  was  unable  to  bring  him 
self  to  believe  in  the  treachery  of  Green.  When  ultimately, 
however,  he  saw  the  drift,  he  gave  his  "tacit  consent." 

Here  Kendall's  story  clashes  with  the  theory,  put  forth  by 
Green,  that  Van  Buren  was  the  directing  genius  behind  the 
whole  project.  When  the  President  finally  gave  his  "tacit 
consent,"  the  practical  politicians  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet 
took  charge.  The  various  governmental  offices  were  visited 
for  an  understanding  as  to  what  portion  of  the  Government 
printing  could  be  expected.  When  Van  Buren,  then  at  the 

1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  *,  128,  gives  the  version  of  the  establishment  of 
the  Globe  which  Van  Buren  in  his  Autobiography  quotes. 

2  Kendall's  Autobiography,  370-74. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  161 

head  of  the  State  Department,  was  approached,  he  an 
nounced  that  he  would  not  give  a  dollar  of  the  printing  of 
his  department,  on  the  ground  that "  were  such  a  paper  estab 
lished  its  origin  would  be  attributed  to  him,  and  he  was  re 
solved  to  be  able  to  say  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  it." 
This  is  typical  of  Van  Buren,  and  is  no  doubt  true.  But  the 
responses  from  all  the  other  departments  were  satisfactory 
and  the  plans  were  pushed. 

Having  positively  settled  upon  the  paper,  the  next  step 
was  to  find  a  managerial  genius.  In  a  conference  between 
Kendall  and  Barry,  the  Postmaster-General,  the  latter  sug 
gested  the  availability  of  Frank  P.  Blair,  then  writing  occa 
sionally  for  the  "Frankfort  Argus,"  though  not  attached  to 
the  paper  in  a  regular  capacity.  The  correspondence  with 
Blair  was  conducted  by  Kendall.  The  Kentuckian,  surprised, 
momentarily  hesitated,  and  it  was  not  until  Kendall  had 
agreed  to  bear  an  equal  part  of  the  responsibility  that  he 
consented. 

While  Blair  was  getting  his  affairs  in  order  in  Kentucky, 
Kendall  proceeded  with  the  arrangements  in  Washington, 
and  when  the  editor  reached  the  capital  nothing  remained 
unsettled  but  the  name  and  a  motto.  The  two  agreed  to  call 
the  paper  the  "Globe,"  and  the  motto,  suggested  by  Blair, 
"The  World  is  Governed  Too  Much." 

Thus  there  appears  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Kendall's  ver 
sion  is  the  correct  one,  that  Jackson  was  no  more  a  leader  in 
the  movement  than  Van  Buren,  and  that  the  idea  was  con 
ceived  by  the  little  group  of  new  and  practical  politicians, 
then  coming  to  the  fore,  and  who,  while  friends  of  Jackson, 
were  interested  in  "measures  more  than  men." 

V 

THE  arrival  of  Frank  Blair  in  Washington  was  an  historical 
event,  not  appreciated  at  the  time,  and  scarcely  properly  ap 
praised  to  this  day.  But  the  ugly,  illy  dressed  stranger,  who 


162    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

presented  himself  at  the  White  House  immediately  after 
reaching  the  capital,  gave  little  promise,  in  his  appearance,  of 
the  power  within  him.  Instead  of  a  large,  raw-boned,  husky 
Kentuckian  expected,  Major  Lewis,  who  met  him,  was  con 
fronted  by  a  short,  slender  man,  poorly  garbed,  and  rather 
timid  and  retiring  than  otherwise.  The  Major  was  frankly 
disappointed  and  probably  disgusted.  But  when  the  editor 
was  presented  to  Jackson,  that  genius  took  note  neither  of  his 
dress  nor  appearance.  Although  expecting  foreign  diplomats 
and  distinguished  statesmen  to  dinner,  he  could  see  no  reason 
why  the  unimposing  little  man,  with  the  ill-fitting  clothes 
and  the  ugly  visage,  should  not  remain  as  his  guest.  Assum 
ing  that  he  would  be  alone,  Blair  accepted,  and,  to  his  horror, 
he  found  himself  in  the  presence  of  ministers  in  all  the  splen 
dor  of  their  official  regalia.  Unaccustomed  to  such  show,  and 
feeling  the  conspicuousness  of  his  garb,  he  fled  to  a  corner, 
hoping  to  escape  notice.  But  Jackson,  who  never  judged 
men  by  their  appearance,  least  of  all  by  their  clothes,  sought 
him  out  with  the  kindest  intentions,  and  placed  him  beside 
him  at  the  table.  This  act  of  courtesy,  painful  to  Blair  at  the 
time,  was  understood  and  appreciated,  and  not  only  won  his 
ardent  support,  but  his  deepest  affection. 

Although  unknown  to  Jackson,  who  would  have  been  unin 
terested  if  he  had  known,  Frank  Blair  was  qualified  by  blood 
to  sit  at  the  table  of  the  first  gentleman  of  the  land.  His 
grandfather  had  been  acting  president  of  Princeton  when 
Witherspoon,  signer  of  the  Declaration,  was  summoned  to 
New  Jersey  to  accept  the  presidency.  Born  forty  years  be 
fore  becoming  editor  of  the  "Globe,"  he  had  displayed,  in  col 
lege,  the  remarkable  intellectual  qualities  that  were  to  make 
him  the  adviser  of  Presidents,  and  one  of  the  most  influen 
tial  moulders  of  public  opinion  of  his  time.  He  distinguished 
himself  as  the  best  rhetorician  and  linguist  of  his  class.1  The 

1  George  Baber's  Blairs  of  Kentucky,  Register  of  Kentucky  Historical  Society, 
vol.  xiv. 


FRANCIS  P.  BLAIR 
ROGER  B.  TANEY  WILLIAM  B.  LEWIS 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  163 

weakness  of  his  voice  discouraged  his  ambition  for  forensic 
distinction.  In  the  Governor's  Mansion  at  Frankfort  he  was 
married,  early  in  life,  to  a  charming  woman  noted  for  "her 
extraordinary  mental  force  and  her  sagacity."  1 

Like  Kendall  and  Barry,  Blair  had  begun  his  political 
career  as  an  ardent  supporter  of  Clay,  and  like  them,  had 
broken  with  him  on  the  "bargain"  story.  According  to 
Blair's  contention  through  life,  Clay  had  confided  to  him  in 
advance  that,  if  such  a  contingency  as  did  develop  should 
arise  in  the  congressional  caucus,  he  would  throw  his  support 
to  Adams,  and  that  he  had  protested  against  the  plan.  Whether 
true  or  not,  that  event  marked  the  end  of  Blair's  interest 
in  the  political  ambitions  of  the  man  from  Ashland.  From 
1823  to  1827  he  played  a  conspicuous  part  as  one  of  the 
principals  in  the  famous  fight  between  the  New  and  the  Old 
Courts  which  all  but  reduced  the  State  to  a  condition  border 
ing  on  anarchy.  This  part  of  his  career  is  difficult  to  under 
stand.  The  New  Court  Party,  with  which  he  was  affiliated, 
was  a  revolutionary  organization  mustering  its  strength  from 
the  indebtedness  and  poverty  of  the  people.  It  proposed  to  re 
lieve  the  condition  of  the  poor  through  methods  frankly  rev 
olutionary  and  worse.  During  the  period  of  the  court  fight, 
and  while  acting  as  the  clerk  of  the  revolutionary  court,  two 
events  completely  changed  the  course  of  his  career.  He  broke 
with  Clay  and  allied  himself  with  the  Democratic  Party;  and 
he  became  a  regular  contributor  to  the  columns  of  the 
"Frankfort  Argus,"  and  a  journalist  by  profession.  On  aban 
doning  the  court  clerkship  he  immediately  identified  him 
self  with  Kendall  in  the  publication  of  the  paper,  and  the 
combined  genius  of  these  two  extraordinary  men  converted 
the  little  Western  journal  into  one  of  the  most  powerful  and 
popular  of  the  Jacksonian  organs.  All  the  credit  appears  to 
have  gone  to  Kendall  and  none  to  his  associate,  for  after  the 

1  George  Baber's  Blairs  of  Kentucky,  Register  of  .Kentucky  Historical  Society, 
vol.  xiv. 


164    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

election  it  was  Kendall  and  not  Blair  who  was  assured  of  rec 
ognition  from  the  incoming  Administration.  After  Kendall 
went  to  Washington,  Blair,  without  the  slightest  notion  of 
ever  following,  remained  in  Frankfort,  writing  special  articles 
in  support  of  Jacksonian  policies  for  the  "Argus."  Thus  he 
plied  his  trenchant  pen  against  the  Bank,  excoriated  Nulli 
fication,  attacked  Clay,  and  damned  Calhoun.  He  had  suf 
fered  financial  reverses,  iJeen  forced  to  sacrifice  much  prop 
erty,  and  was  in  distressed  circumstances.  Later,  when  he 
was  assailed  by  Senator  Poindexter  as  having  gone  to  Wash 
ington  as  a  "beggar,"  he  was  indignantly  to  repel  the  charge. 
"The  editor  of  the  *  Globe'  resigned,  on  leaving  Frankfort  to 
take  charge  of  the  press  here,"  he  wrote,  "the  clerkship  of  the 
circuit  court,  the  fees  of  which  alone  averaged  $2000  annually, 
and  the  presidency  of  the  Bank  of  the  Commonwealth,  ancl 
other  employments  which  made  his  annual  income  upward  of 
$3000  —  a  sum  twice  as  great  as  the  salaries  of  the  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  and  a  third  greater  than  that  of  the  Gov 
ernor  of  the  State."  1  Nevertheless,  it  was  the  state  of  his 
finances  which  had  necessitated  the  temporary  suppression  of 
the  fact  that  he  had  accepted  the  editorship  of  the  "  Globe." 

Once  in  the  editorial  chair,  he  assumed  a  militant  attitude, 
and  frankly  announced  that  the  paper  would  be  devoted 
"to  the  discussion  and  maintenance  of  the  principles  which 
brought  General  Jackson  into  office";  and  as  early  as  April, 
1831,  four  months  after  the  first  appearance  of  the  paper,  he 
began  vigorously  to  advocate  the  reelection  of  his  idol  in  the 
White  House. 

The  first  issue  appeared  on  December  7,  1830,  published 
twice  a  week.  In  its  initial  days  the  inevitable  quarrel  be 
tween  Blair  and  Green  simmered,  and  while  the  "Globe"  and 
the  "Telegraph"  were  nervously  toying  with  their  pistols, 
the  actual  fight  did  not  commence  until  Green  published  the 
Calhoun  letters.  Thereafter  the  contest  was  acrimonious  and 
*  Globe,  Feb.  17, 1834. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  165 

continuous.  The  immediate  result  of  this  battle  was  to  im 
press  Blair  with  the  necessity  of  a  daily  publication,  requir 
ing  a  much  larger  outlay  in  money  than  either  Blair  or  Ken 
dall  or  both  were  able  to  advance.  This,  however,  did  not  dis 
courage  the  plucky  little  Kentuckian  in  the  least.  He  called 
upon  the  friends  and  supporters  of  Jackson  in  the  capital  and 
throughout  the  country  to  subscribe  for  six  hundred  copies 
and  pay  for  them  in  advance  at  the  rate  of  ten  dollars  per  an 
num.  This  money  was  easily  collected,  and  thus,  without  the 
advance,  by  Blair,  of  a  dollar  of  capital,  the  "Globe"  was 
placed  upon  a  firm  and  sure  foundation.1 

The  journalistic  genius  of  the  little  editor  almost  imme 
diately  gave  the  paper  first  rank  in  importance  among  all  the 
papers  then  published  in  the  country.  Some  of  his  admirers 
have  said  that  "he  became  the  master  of  a  style  of  composi 
tion  that  compared  favorably  with  that  of  Junius."  2  How 
ever  that  may  be,  he  unquestionably  was  forceful,  entertain 
ing,  and  at  times,  eloquent.  He  could  be  dignified  and  argu 
mentative  without  being  dull.  He  knew  how  to  appeal  at 
once  to  the  lover  of  pure  English  and  the  uneducated  artisan 
of  the  city  or  the  frontiersman  in  the  wilderness.  He  was  a 
pioneer  among  the  journalists  who  have  known  how  to  pro 
duce  a  paper  that  would  be  as  welcome  on  the  library  table  of 
the  student  as  in  the  hut  of  the  farmer  on  the  outskirts  of  civ 
ilization.  The  secret  of  his  strength  was  his  direct  method. 
There  was  nothing  of  equivocation  or  compromise  in  his  char 
acter.  He  did  not  qualify  away  all  force  for  the  sake  of  con 
servatism.  He  liked  to  cross  the  Rubicon,  burn  the  bridges, 
and  devastate  the  country.  Any  one  could  understand  pre 
cisely  what  he  meant.  He  was  intense  in  his  convictions,  and 
he  had  the  audacity,  inseparable  from  political  genius,  to 

1  This  is  Kendall's  story  in  his  Autobiography.  He  gives  no  hint  that  Jackson  con 
tributed  a  penny.  George  Henry  Payne,  in  his  History  of  Journalism  in  the  United 
States,  says  that  the  establishment  of  the  Globe  cost  Jackson  $50,000  a  year,  but  as 
this  version  is  Green's,  it  is  not  at  all  convincing  or  probable. 

2  Baber's  Blairs  of  Kentucky. 


166    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

move  in  a  straight  line,  prepared  to  meet  the  enemy  even 
on  ground  of  the  latter's  choosing.  His  gift  of  satire  and  sar 
casm  was  a  joy  to  his  fellow  partisans  who  delighted  in 
him.  At  first  intended  as  their  spokesman,  he  became  their 
leader.  Politicians  soon  learned  that  it  was  not  necessary  to 
carry  suggestions  to  the  editor  of  the  "  Globe  "  —  they  went 
to  his  sanctum  to  get  them.  Capable  of  a  skillful  use  of  the 
rapier,  he  preferred  the  meat-axe.  Nothing  pleased  him  so 
much  as  the  crushing  of  the  skulls  of  the  enemies  of  Jackson, 
and  if  these  should  happen  to  be  Democrats,  all  the  greater 
was  the  joy  of  the  operation. 

This  slashing,  brilliant  style  delighted  Jackson,  who, 
strangely  enough,  had  a  profound  admiration  for  the  fluent 
writer.  The  old  warrior  took  him  to  his  bosom.  That  the  edi 
tor  of  the  "  Court  journal "  should  be  mistaken  was  unthink 
able  to  the  President;  and  when  any  one  asked  him  for  in 
formation  on  any  subject  with  which  he  was  unfamiliar,  he 
would  invariably  reply:  "Go  to  Frank  Blair  —  he  knows 
everything."  And  Jackson  believed  it.  Firmly  convinced 
that  the  people  were  entitled  to  all  public  information,  when 
any  such  came  to  his  attention  he  would  instantly  say,  "Give 
it  to  Blair."  l  He  consulted  the  little  ugly  Kentuckian  con 
stantly  on  all  matters  of  domestic  policy,  on  party  matters 
and  patronage,  and  even  on  delicate  points  concerned  with 
international  programmes.  The  intimacy  of  this  relationship 
soon  trickled  down  from  the  capital  to  the  party  workers  in 
the  most  remote  sections,  and,  in  time,  the  paper  took  its 
place  with  the  Bible  in  all  well-regulated  Democratic  house 
holds.  Jackson  himself  is  said  to  have  read  nothing  during 
his  Presidency  but  the  Bible,  his  correspondence,  and  the 
"Globe."  2  The  Democratic  press  throughout  the  country 
got  its  cue  from  Blair's  editorials,  and  he,  astute  politician 
and  advertiser,  took  pains  to  cultivate  intimate  relations 
with  all  papers  supporting  the  Administration.  Many  arti- 

1  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  323.  2  Perleys  Reminiscences,  i,  191. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  167 

cles,  written  by  Kendall  in  the  office  of  the  "Globe,"  and  sent 
to  country  papers  for  publication  as  their  own,  were  after 
wards  collected  and  reproduced  in  the  Administration  organ 
to  indicate  the  trend  of  public  opinion. 

Naturally  the  enemies  of  the  Administration  in  Congress 
looked  upon  Blair  and  his  paper  with  venomous  hatred,  and 
not  without  cause.  No  head  was  too  distinguished  for  his 
bludgeon,  and  it  descended  with  resounding  whacks  upon  the 
craniums  of  the  greatest  as  well  as  the  least  of  these,  leading 
to  many  furious  protests  and  denunciations  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  and  Senate.  The  "Congressional  Globe"  is  thickly 
sprinkled  with  references  to  the  paper.  There  was  nothing  of 
novelty  in  a  statesman  rising  to  a  question  of  personal  privi 
lege  to  explain  that  the  editor  had  done  him  an  injustice  in 
describing  him  as  a  liar,  an  anarchist,  or  a  traitor.  Occasion 
ally  Clay,  or  some  lesser  light,  would  rise  to  protest  against 
the  action  of  the  President  in  conveying  information,  to 
which  the  Congress  was  entitled,  through  the  columns  of  his 
organ.  Henry  A.  Wise  would  complain  that  "the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  has  already  informed  Congress  and  the  coun 
try,  through  the  columns  of  the  'Globe*  of  Saturday  last," 
that  a  certain  policy  would  be  pursued.1  Or  perhaps  he  would 
merely  desire  to  explain  that  a  certain  editorial  was  a  "total 
perversion  of  the  facts."  2  Or  maybe  it  was  John  Quincy 
Adams  who  took  the  floor  to  describe  the  editor  of  the 
"Globe"  as  "the  ambassador  of  the  Executive,"  an  ambassa 
dor  being  "a  distinguished  person  sent  abroad  to  lie  for  the 
benefit  of  his  country."  3  One  member  would  secure  recog 
nition  to  "indignantly  repel  the  charge  made  against  him 
by  the  'Globe'  of  being  an  anarchist  and  a  revolutionist."  4 
Even  Webster  was  not  impervious  to  the  darts  of  the  jour 
nalist,  and  did  not  think  it  beneath  his  dignity  formally  to 

1  Cong.  Globe,  April  14,  1836.  2  Ibid.,  April  20.  1836. 

8  Ibid.,  May  13,  1836. 

«  Mr.  Williams  of  Kentucky.  ibid.t  May  30. 1836. 


168    PARTY  BATTLES  OP  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

protest  against  an  editorial  paragraph,  "flagitiously  false," 
which  had  reflected  upon  him  as  chairman  of  the  Finance 
Committee.1 

With  the  politicians,  the  country  press,  and  the  party 
leaders  in  the  Congress  treating  the  "Globe"  as  the  editorial 
reflection  of  the  President,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  dip 
lomatic  corps  should  have  accepted  the  general  assumption, 
and  that  the  foreign  offices  of  Europe  should  have  attached 
no  little  significance  to  any  of  its  observations  on  interna 
tional  affairs.  Of  the  truth  of  this  we  have  one  very  striking 
illustration. 

While  Livingston  was  Secretary  of  State,  James  Buchanan 
was  the  American  Minister  at  St.  Petersburg,  charged  with 
the  negotiation  of  a  highly  important  commercial  treaty. 
All  went  well  until  the  terms  of  the  treaty  had  been  practi 
cally  agreed  upon,  when  he  had  an  interview  with  the  bril 
liant  Count  Nesselrode,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  who  pro 
tested  against  what  he  termed  the  unfriendly  attitude  of  the 
American  press  toward  the  Emperor  and  Russia,  apropos  of 
Poland.  Not  only,  he  complained,  had  the  "Globe,"  which  he 
characterized  as  "the  Government  paper,"  failed  to  correct 
the  false  impressions  of  the  press  generally,  but  it  "had  it 
self  been  distinguished  by  falsehoods."  He  hoped,  therefore, 
that  the  President  "would  adopt  measures  to  remove  this 
cause  of  complaint  in  the  future,  at  least  against  the  official 
paper  in  Washington. "  2  Recovering  as  quickly  as  possible 
from  his  astonishment,  Buchanan  explained  that  the  press  in 
the  United  States  was  not  subject  to  governmental  super 
vision,  but  the  practical-minded  Nesselrode  was  not  at  all 
impressed.  He  baldly  charged  that  the  "Globe"  "formed  an 
exception  to  the  rule  and  was  a  paper  over  which  the  Govern 
ment  exercised  a  direct  control."  Such  being  the  Russian 
understanding,  the  Count  was  disappointed  at  the  failure  of 

1  Cong.  Globe,  June  3,  1836.  ^ 

*  Buchanan  to  Livingston,  Buchanan's  Works,  n,  299. 


KITCHEN  CABINET  PORTRAITS  169 

Livingston,  when  he  had  met  the  Russian  Minister  to  the 
United  States  in  New  York  City,  to  offer  assurances  that  no 
more  offensive  articles  would  appear  in  that  journal,  and 
even  more  chagrined  to  learn,  after  that  interview,  that  the 
"Globe"  had  been  "more  violent  than  before."  Buchanan 
was  forced  to  concede  that  the  "Globe"  was  commonly 
called  the  "official  paper,"  but  earnestly  protested  that  it  was 
free  from  governmental  control.  He  was  "persuaded  that  even 
the  influence  of  Mr.  Livingston  over  the  editor"  was  not  much 
greater  than  his  own,  and  he  had  no  influence  at  all.  Here 
Buchanan  was  on  safe  ground,  but  Nesselrode  was  not  so 
easily  convinced.  With  a  disconcerting  smile  of  incredulity, 
he  suggested  that  "General  Jackson  himself  must  certainly 
have  some  influence  over  the  editor."  Finding  himself  in  a 
blind  alley,  Buchanan  was  lamely  admitting  that  the  Presi 
dent  might  have  such  influence,  when  Nesselrode,  taking 
instant  advantage  of  the  admission,  and  without  waiting 
for  the  conclusion  of  the  sentence,  requested  him  to  ask  Jack 
son  to  "exercise  it  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  the  'Globe* 
to  pursue  a  more  cautious  course  hereafter."  Buchanan, 
glad  of  the  opportunity  to  drop  the  subject,  hastened  to  as 
sure  the  Count  that  it  would  afford  him  great  pleasure  "to 
make  his  wishes  known  to  the  President."  1 

Thus,  such  was  the  genius  of  Blair  and  Kendall  in  impress 
ing  themselves  upon  the  affairs  of  the  Nation  that,  within 
three  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  "  Globe,"  they  had 
become  political  powers  in  the  Republic,  and  so  much  inter 
national  figures  that  their  editorials  were  carefully  read  in 
the  foreign  offices  of  Europe. 

Of  the  members  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  Lewis's  influence 
in  determining  the  political  fate  of  men,  and  Hill's  in  estab 
lishing  the  system  of  spoils,  were  of  no  small  importance,  but 
the  publicity  work  of  Blair  and  Kendall,  more  than  any  other 
one  thing,  contributed  to  the  solidarity  of  the  party,  and  the 

1  Buchanan's  Works,  n,  300-01. 


170    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

general  popularity  of  Jackson  and  his  measures.  Benton, 
Van  Buren,  Forsyth,  were  masterful  managers  of  Jackson's 
congressional  battles,  where  he  frequently  lost  to  Clay,  but 
the  practical  politicians  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  through  the 
free  use  of  patronage  and  the  press,  aroused  and  organized 
the  masses  with  the  ballots  for  the  succession  of  successful 
battles  at  the  polls. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT 

I 

HENRY  CLAY  sat  in  the  little  library  at  Ashland  reading  a 
letter  from  Webster.  "You  must  be  aware  of  the  strong 
desire  manifested  in  many  parts  of  the  country  that  you 
should  come  into  the  Senate,"  the  letter  ran.  "The  wish  is 
entertained  here  as  earnestly  as  elsewhere.  We  are  to  have  an 
interesting  and  arduous  session.  Everything  is  to  be  attacked. 
An  array  is  preparing  much  more  formidable  than  has  ever 
yet  assaulted  what  we  think  the  leading  and  important  pub 
lic  interests.  Not  only  the  tariff,  but  the  Constitution  itself, 
in  its  elemental  and  fundamental  provisions,  will  be  assailed 
with  talent,  vigor,  and  union.  Everything  is  to  be  debated 
as  if  nothing  had  ever  been  settled.  It  would  be  an  infinite 
gratification  to  me  to  have  your  aid,  or  rather,  your  lead.  I 
know  nothing  so  likely  to  be  useful.  Everything  valuable  in 
the  government  is  to  be  fought  for  and  we  need  your  arm 
in  the  fight." 

The  meaning  was  perfectly  clear  to  Clay.  The  man  in  the 
White  House,  contrary  to  Whig  expectations,  was  disclosing 
masterful  qualities  of  leadership,  ^The  veto  of  the  Maysville 
and  Lexington  Turnpike  Bills  had  left  no  room  for  doubt  as 
to  his  attitude  toward  internal  improvements/  No  Executive 
had  ever  before  so  freely  exercised  the  power  of  presidential 
rejection.1  On  the  tariff  he  was  known  to  favor  such  reason 
able  reductions  as  would  conciliate  the  Southern  States,  and 
his  brief  reference  to  the  National  Bank  in  his  first  Message, 
disconcerting  in  itself,  had  been  followed  by  ominously  hos- 

1  The  public  improvement  feature  of  internal  improvement  was  of  less  importance 
with  the  politician  than  the  pork-barrel  phase.  See  Schouler's  History. 


172    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

tile  action  on  the  part  of  several  State  Legislatures.1  Mean 
while  Jackson's  candidacy  for  reelection  was  practically 
announced.  Major  Lewis,  in  his  subterranean  manner,  had 
been  busy  and  with  the  usual  results.  The  "New  York 
Courier  and  Enquirer,"  organ  of  Van  Buren,  was  advocating 
his  reelection,  and  the  President's  followers,  quietly  encour 
aged  by  Kendall  and  Lewis,  had  placed  him  in  nomination 
in  the  legislatures  of  five  States. 

Under  these  conditions  the  old  party  of  Adams  grew  res 
tive  and  impatient  for  a  strong  leader,  and  instinctively 
turned  to  the  magnetic  figure  of  Ashland.  Already  his  nomi 
nation  for  the  Presidency  in  1832  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 
The  enthusiastic  acclaim  which  had  greeted  him  on  his  po 
litical  tours  during  his  retirement  had  impressed  his  sanguine 
temperament  as  a  sure  omen  of  success.  He  would  have  pre 
ferred  to  have  remained  in  retirement  pending  the  election, 
but  the  party  demand  for  his  leadership  in  Washington  was 
insistent.  The  Opposition  needed  a  figure  around  which  it 
could  rally,  and  as  a  party  leader  Webster  was  a  failure. 
With  much  reluctance  Clay  decided  to  respond  to  the  call. 
The  election  in  Kentucky  had  been  a  keen  disappointment, 
and  the  enemies  of  the  Administration  had  a  bare  majority 
in  the  legislature,  but  it  was  enough,  and  he  was  elected. 

Early  in  November  he  reached  the  capital,"  borne  up  by  the 
undying  spirit  of  ambition,"  looking  "  well  and  animated," 
to  be  received  with  "the  most  marked  deference  and  re 
spect."  2  From  this  time  on,  throughout  Jackson's  Presi 
dency,  he  was  to  remain  the  brilliant,  resourceful,  bitter, 
and  unscrupulous  leader  of  the  Opposition  —  as  brilliant 
and  remarkable  an  Opposition  as  has  ever  confronted  a 
Government  in  this  or  any  other  country. 

And  such  a  politician !  There  have  been  few  remotely  like 
him,  none  his  superior  in  personal  popularity.  His  unpre- 

1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  187. 

2  First  Forty  Years,  Nov.  7.  1831. 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 
HENHY  CLAY  DANIEL  WEBSTER 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     173 

cedented  sway  over  a  party  was  due,  in  large  measure,  to  his 
remarkably  fascinating  personality,  his  audacity  and  dash, 
his  amazing  powers  of  ingratiation,  and  his  superb  eloquence 
which  acted  upon  the  spirit  of  the  party  workers  like  the 
sound  of  a  bugle  to  a  battle  charger.  No  American  orator, 
perhaps,  has  ever  approached  his  effect  upon  a  partisan  au 
dience.  Fluent,  and  at  times  capable  of  passages  of  inspired 
eloquence,  a  consummate  master  of  the  implements  of  sar 
casm  and  ridicule,  his  was  the  oratory  that  moves  men  to 
action.  He  could  lash  his  followers  to  fury  or  move  them  to 
tears.  His  speeches  often  lacked  literary  finish,  and,  at  times, 
in  their  colloquialisms  descended  beneath  the  dignity  of  the 
man's  position,  but  even  these  occasional  descents  to  buf 
foonery  contributed  to  his  popularity.  He  often  spoke  the 
language  of  the  people  —  Webster  and  Calhoun,  never.  The 
contribution  of  new  ideas  to  a  discussion  was  not  his  forte. 
But  he  could  gather  up  the  material  at  hand,  and  weave  it 
into  a  speech  of  fervent  declamation  which  created  the  mo 
mentary  impression  that  he  was  breaking  virgin  soil.  His 
oratory  was  in  his  personality  and  his  delivery.  His  voice 
was  an  exquisite  musical  instrument,  with  a  clarion  note 
that  carried  his  words  to  the  outskirts  of  the  greatest  throng. 
When  he  spoke,  his  expressive  countenance  glowed  with  his 
genius,  his  eyes  flashed  or  caressed,  his  commanding  figure 
seemed  to  grow,  and  in  his  combined  dignity  and  grace  he 
looked  the  part  of  the  splendid  commander  of  men,  and  the 
inspiring  crusader  of  a  cause.  No  man  of  his  time,  among  all 
the  great  orators  of  that  golden  age,  could  so  hold  an  audi 
ence  literally  spell-bound,  Prentiss  alone  approaching  him. 

In  personal  intercourse,  no  politician  ever  possessed  more 
of  the  seductive  graces.  There  his  magnetism  was  compel 
ling.  When  he  cared  to  put  forth  all  his  powers  of  attraction, 
no  one  could  withstand  his  charm.  Webster  was  godlike  and 
compelled  admiration;  Clay  was  human  and  commanded 
love.  Calhoun  once  said  of  him:  "I  don't  like  Clay.  He  is 


174    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

a  bad  man,  an  impostor,  a  creature  of  wicked  schemes.  I 
won't  speak  to  him,  but,  by  God,  I  love  him!"  His  effect  on 
both  men  and  women  has  been  ascribed  to  the  fact  that, 
masculine  and  virile  though  he  was,  he  possessed  feminine 
qualities  that  led  to  a  sentimental  feeling  toward  him.  Men 
would  follow  him,  knowing  him  to  be  wrong;  stake  their 
political  fortunes  on  him,  though  they  knew  it  would  mean 
their  own  undoing;  and  women  wept  over  his  defeats  and 
idolized  him  as  a  god. 

As  a  political  leader  he  was  an  opportunist.  He  often 
changed  his  tack  to  meet  the  passing  breeze,  but  with  the 
exception  of  his  Bank  reversal  nothing  could  force  him  to 
admit  it.  As  we  proceed  with  the  story  of  the  party  battles  of 
the  Jackson  Administrations,  we  shall  be  impressed  at  times 
with  his  capability  for  trickery,  demagogy,  misrepresentation, 
deliberate  misinterpretation,  and  dogmatic  arrogance  with 
his  own  friends  and  supporters.  He  brooked  no  equals.  He 
accepted  no  rebuke  and  few  suggestions,  and  led  his  party 
with  a  high-handedness  that  would  have  wrecked  a  lesser 
man. 

His  personal  habits  were  not  the  best,  and  yet  they  were 
not  of  a  nature  that  greatly  shocked  his  generation.  Adams 
thought  him  "only  half  educated"  and  was  disgusted  by  the 
looseness  of  his  public  and  his  private  morals.1  But  Adams 
was  not  in  harmony  with  his  times.  Clay  was  an  inveterate 
gambler  —  but  so  were  a  large  portion  of  the  public  men  in 
the  Washington  of  the  Thirties.  And  while  a  heavy  drinker, 
he  does  not  appear  to  have  often  been  noticeably  under  the 
influence,  as  was  Webster.  But  these  vices  never  interfered 
with  his  work  or  diverted  him  for  a  moment  from  the  pur 
suit  of  his  ambition. 

It  was  a  militant  figure  that  strode  down  the  Avenue  to 
the  Capitol  to  lead  the  fight,  with  the  stride  of  an  Indian, 
his  well-shaped  feet  encased  in  shoes  instead  of  the  boots 

1  Adams's  Memoirs. 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  175 

generally  worn  at  the  time,  and  fastidiously  attired  as  was 
his  wont  —  a  Henry  Clay,  in  shining  armor,  his  sword  shim 
mering. 

n 

FIVE  days  after  Congress  convened,|the  Baltimore  Conven 
tion  nominated  Clay  for  the  high  office  he  long  had  sought^ 
It  had  been  inevitable  from  the  hour  he  rode  out  of  Wash 
ington  after  the  inauguration  on  his  way  to  Baltimore. 
During  his  retirement,  his  letters  of  1829  and  1830  furnish 
proof  of  his  candidacy,  albeit  he  carefully  conveyed  the  im 
pression  that  he  was  a  little  indifferent  to  the  nomination,  and 
more  than  doubtful  of  the  result  of  the  election.1  In  a  letter 
to  a  political  follower  he  early  predicted  that  if  Jackson  could 
unite  New  York,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania  upon  his  can 
didacy,  opposition  would  be  futile.2  Two  months  later, 
Webster  assured  him  of  the  support  of  Massachusetts,  but 
feared  that  a  first  nomination  from  that  State  would  "only 
raise  the  cry  of  coalition  revived."3  And  three  days  after 
his  nomination  at  Baltimore,  Clay  had  written  of  his  skep 
ticism  of  success,  with  the  encouraging  comment:  "Some 
thing,  however,  may  turn  up  (and  that  must  be  our  encour 
aging  hope)  to  give  a  brighter  aspect  to  our  affairs." 4  Thus, 
when  he  entered  the  Senate  we  may  be  sure  that  it  was  with 
the  fixed  determination  that  something  should  "turn  up."  It 
was  his  belief,  as  we  have  seen,  that  jTackson's  election  de 
pended  upon  his  ability  to  carry  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and 
New  York.  At  the  time  he  entertained  no  hope  of  diverting 
Virginia  from  Jackson,  but  he  hoped  to  carry  Pennsylvania 
or  New  York,  or  both.  Upon  the  former  he  pinned  his  faith 
—  and  there  the  tariff  was  strong,  and  the  National  Bank 
had  its  headquarters  there,  with  its  ramifications  into  every 

1  Colton's  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Clay. 

2  Clay  to  Senator  Johnson,  Clay's  Works,  iv,  265. 

»  Clay's  Works,  iv,  275.       rj      T.  «  Ibid.,  iv,  321. 


176     PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

section  of  the  country.  His  platform  had  been  carefully 
thought  out  and  thoroughly  discussed  in  the  correspondence 
of  1829  and  1830.  It  embraced  internal  improvements,  a 
protective  tariff,  and  the  rechartering  of  the  Bank.  Thus, 
when  Congress  met,  the  Opposition  candidate  and  his  plat 
form  were  before  the  people,  and  the  congressional  battles 
of  the  session  were  but  heavy  skirmishes  preliminary  to  the 
battle  for  the  Presidenc^^ 

As  he  looked  over  the  personnel  of  Congress,  Clay  must 
have  rejoiced  over  his  advantage.  There,  by  his  side,  sat 
"Webster,  with  all  the  prestige  of  his  great  name  and  in  all  the 
splendor  of  his  genius.  Presiding  still  over  the  deliberations 
of  the  Senate  was  the  stern- visaged  political  philosopher  and 
sage  who  had  definitely  broken  with  Jackson  —  CaJiiojin.  It 
could  not  have  taken  him  long  to  discover,  in  the  young 
Hercules  with  the  harshly  carven  features,  the  brilliant  possi 
bilities  of  John  M.  Clayton.  And  there,  harboring  a  secret 
grudge,  and  suffering  acutely  from  the  wounds  inflicted  on 
his  mentor  in  the  chair,  sat  the  eloquent  Hayne,  meditating 
revenge.  In  Thomas  Ewing  of  Ohio,  a  robust  partisan  and 
able  debater,  he  found  a  fighter  after  his  own  heart.  And 
while  they  were  of  the  State  Rights  persuasion,  and  hostile 
to  the  tariff  and  internal  improvements,  he  could  scarcely 
have  failed  to  catch  in  the  eyes  of  the  erudite  Tazewell  and 
Tyler  of  Virginia  something  of  a  promise  that  was  to  be 
fulfilled. 

And  against  him,  he  saw  John  Forsyth  and  Benton,  men  of 
character  and  power,  supported  by  Felix  Grundy  and  Hugh 
White,  "Ike"  Hill  and  Mahlon  Dickerson  of  New  Jersey. 

His  was  manifestly  the  advantage  in  the  Senate. 

But  in  the  House  his  advantage  was  much  greater,  for 
among  the  members  of  the  Opposition  was  the  most  brilliant 
array  of  great  orators  ever  assembled  in  a  single  Congress. 
John  Quincy  Adams  had  reentered  public  life  as  a  Represent 
ative  from  Quincy  —  as  full  of  fire  and  pepper  as  ever  in  his 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     177 

youth;  Edward  Everett,  the  most  scholarly  and  polished 
orator  of  his  generation;  Rufus  Choate,  the  greatest  forensic 
orator  the  Republic  has  produced;  Richard  Henry  Wilde, 
who  combined  the  qualities  of  a  graceful  poet,  a  vigorous 
debater  and  eloquent  orator,  and  a  sound  scholar;  Tom 
Corwin,  the  wit  and  the  slashing  master  of  polemics;  and 
greater  perhaps  than  all,  as  a  congressional  orator,  the  fiery 
and  indomitable  George  McDuffie  of  South  Carolina. 

And  against  this  combination  the  best  the  Administration 
could  do  was  to  put  forth  the  commonplace  plodder  James  K. 
Polk,  assisted  by  Churchill  C.  Cambreleng  of  New  York. 
f  If  Jackson  had  the  advantage  of  position,  Clay  had  all  the 
prestige  of  genius  on  his  side.  Thus  the  two  parties  faced 
each  other  for  the.  battle.l 

m 

A  LESS  provocative  Message  than  that  with  which  Jackson 
opened  the  Congress  could  hardly  have  been  penned.  It  was 
conciliatory  and  in  good  taste.  But  Clay's  voice  was  for  war. 
It  was  his  determination  that  something  should  "turn  up," 
if  he  had  to  turn  it  up,  for  the  purposes  of  the  election,  and 
he  had  instilled  his  spirit  into  his  followers.  Instantly  the 
gage  of  battle  was  thrown  down  in  the  consideration  of  the 
nomination  of  Van  Buren  as  Minister  to  England.  A  pettier 
piece  of  party  politics  is  scarcely  found  in  the  history  of  the 
Senate.  Among  all  the  Opposition  Senators,  there  were  prob 
ably  none  who  doubted  his  capacity  or  questioned  his  in 
tegrity.  With  the  Calhoun  faction  it  was  personal  spite; 
with  Clay,  Webster,  and  Clayton  it  was  partisan  spleen.  Six 
months  before,  Van  Buren  had  ridden  out  of  Washington 
with  Jackson  by  his  side,  and  had  sailed  for  England.  In 
London  he  was  at  once  received  into  the  most  brilliant  soci 
ety.  He  became  an  intimate  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and 
Talleyrand,  Ambassador  from  France,  cultivated  him,  while 
Rogers,  the  poet,  entertained  him  frequently  at  his  famous 


178    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

breakfasts.  He  had  been  charged  with  an  important  mission 
—  nothing  less  than  the  negotiation  of  an  agreement  that 
would  prevent  the  recurrence  of  the  causes  of  estrangement 
between  the  two" peoples  growing  out  of  the  occurrences  in 
cidental  to  England's  participation  in  European  wars.1  Wel 
comed  to  the  most  exclusive  drawing-rooms,  cultivated  by 
the  most  powerful  of  English  statesmen,  with  the  prestige  in 
London  of  having  adjusted,  while  in  the  State  Department, 
the  long-standing  differences  relative  to  the  West  Indian 
trade,  he  was  in  position  to  achieve  triumphs  for  his  country 
when  his  nomination  was  sent  to  the  Senate. 

And  there,  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun  eagerly  awaited 
its  coming.  They  had  been  busily  engaged  for  weeks  in  pre 
paring  the  attack.  Each  drew  all  his  particular  friends  into 
the  conspiracy,  many  of  them  entering  reluctantly  rather 
than  incur  their  displeasure.  The  charges  against  Van  Buren 
were  transparently  political.  The  Calhoun  faction  were  pre 
pared  to  contend  that  he  had  engineered  the  quarrel  of  the 
President  and  the  Vice-President  and  had  disrupted  the 
Cabinet.  Clay's  special  point  was  to  be  that  he  had  intro 
duced  the  policy  of  proscription,  destined  to  destroy  Ameri 
can  institutions,  and  he  was  to  join  with  Webster  in  viciously 
assailing  him  for  his  instructions  to  our  Minister  to  England 
in  the  negotiations  on  the  West  Indian  trade. 

The  latter  reason  for  refusing  to  confirm  the  nomination 
of  Van  Buren  was  the  only  one  that  rose  to  the  dignity  of 
a  pretense.  For  some  time  the  United  States  had  been  nego 
tiating  with  London  for  the  opening  of  trade  in  American 
vessels  between  this  country  and  the  British  possessions, 
but  without  success.  During  the  preceding  Administration, 
while  Clay  was  Secretary  of  State,  extravagant  claims  were 
advanced  by  the  American  Government,  and,  by  angering 
England,  had  only  served  to  make  a  settlement  more  remote. 
When  Van  Buren  became  Secretary  of  State,  and  McLane 

1  Jackson  refers  to  his  instructions  in  his  Message  of  December,  1831. . 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     179 

was  sent  to  London,  he  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  reopen 
ing  negotiations,  and  was  given  certain  instructions  for  his 
guidance.  Among  these  was  the  abandonment  of  the  un 
tenable  claims  of  Clay,  and  the  concession  of  the  British 
point  of  view  upon  them.  This  was  denounced  as  a  weakness 
and  a  surrender,  and  as  an  intentional  reflection  upon  the 
previous  Administration  for  party  purposes.  As  a  matter  of 
record,  the  instructions  furnished  McLane  by  Van  Buren 
were  predicated  upon  the  report  submitted  to  Clay,  after 
the  ^failure  of  the  preceding  negotiations,  by  Albert  Gallatin, 
the  Minister  to  England  under  Adams.1  It  consequently 
follows  that  when  Clay,  thoroughly  familiar  with  his  own 
Minister's  report  to  him,  and  with  the  fact  that  Van  Buren 
had  merely  followed  it  in  his  preparation  of  the  instructions, 
vehemently  denounced  the  latter  for  deliberately  and  mali 
ciously  reflecting  upon  the  previous  Administration,  he  was 
tricking  the  Senate  and  the  country.  He,  at  least,  knew 
better.  And  the  mere  fact  that  McLane  was  further  in 
structed  to  stress  the  fact  that  the  preceding  Administration 
had  been  repudiated  by  the  people  at  the  polls,  and  the  new 
regime  should  not  be  held  accountable  for  the  mistakes  of  the 
old,  while  in  doubtful  taste,  was  scarcely  an  offense  so  hei 
nous  as  to  justify  the  proposed  humiliation  of  Van  Buren.2 
The  other  charges  had  less  substance.  It  has  never  been  con 
vincingly  shown  that  Van  Buren  had  any  part  in  engineering 
the  quarrel  between  Jackson  and  Calhoun,  and  years  after 
retiring  from  the  Presidency,  Jackson  solemnly  exonerated 
him  from  any  complicity.3  Equally  unproved,  and  unprov- 
able,  was  the  claim  that  he  had  precipitated  the  Cabinet 
crisis,  and  the  charge  that  he  had  introduced  the  policy  of 
proscription  might  well  have  emanated  from  some  one  other 
than  Clay. 

1  Benton,  by  quoting  the  instructions  and  Gallatin's  report,  shows  the  dishonesty 
of  the  simulated  indignation.   (Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  216-17.) 

2  Rufus  King  had  furnished  a  precedent  when  he  described  the  John  Adams  Ad 
ministration  to  the  British.  (King's  Works.)    3  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  217. 


180    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

The  clear  intent  of  the  conspiracy  was  to  destroy  Van 
Buren  and  his  prospects  for  the  Presidency. 

When  the  nomination  reached  the  Senate,  nothing  was 
done  for  five  weeks.  Meanwhile  the  leaders  of  the  conspir 
acy  were  carefully  preparing  their  speeches  for  publication 
and  wide  distribution.  On  the  submission  of  the  report,  the 
venom  behind  the  remarkable  procrastination  was  revealed 
in  a  resolution,  entrusted  to  one  of  the  lesser  lights,1  to 
recommit  the  nomination  with  instructions  to  investigate 
the  disruption  of  the  Cabinet  and  whether  Van  Buren  had 
"participated  in  any  practices  disreputable  to  the  national 
character."  This,  offered  as  a  weak  contribution  to  the  at 
tempt  to  blacken  Van  Buren's  reputation,  having  served  its 
purpose,  was  withdrawn  without  action.  Then  the  orators 
began.  One  after  another,  with  a  cheap  simulation  of  sorrow 
ful  regret  over  the  necessity  of  injuring  an  amiable  man, 
poured  forth  his  protest  against  the  nomination.  Clay,  of 
course,  made  a  slashing  onslaught.  Webster  confined  himself 
to  attacking  the  victim  because  of  his  instructions  to  Mc- 
Lane.  Clayton  and  Ewing,  Hayne  and  seven  others  recited 
their  elaborately  prepared  partisan  harangues  under  the  ap 
proving  eye  of  Calhoun  in  the  chair. 

The  principal  reply,  and  only  four  were  made,  was  that  of 
Senator  John  Forsyth,  the  accomplished  floor  leader  of  the 
Administration,  and  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  resource 
ful  of  men.  He  vigorously  protested  against  a  partisan  cru 
cifixion,  and  sarcastically  commended  the  fine  public  spirit 
of  Senators  who  could  voluntarily  bring  such  distress  upon 
themselves  to  serve  the  public  good.  This  fling  went  home  to 
many.  Hayne,  in  later  years,  admitted  that  he  had  spoken 
and  voted  against  his  judgment  at  the  behest  of  party,2  and 
John  Tyler,  who  was  incapable  of  a  pose,  voted  for  the  con 
firmation,  "not  that  I  liked  the  man  overmuch,"  but  be 
cause  he  could  find  no  principle  to  justify  his  rejection,  and 
1  Senator  Holmes  of  Maine.  2  Jervey's  Robert  Y.  Hayne. 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  181 

did  not  care  to  join  "the  notoriously  factious  opposition  ,  .  . 
who  oppose  everything  favored  by  the  Administration."  * 
Indeed,  the  cooler  and  wiser  heads  among  the  enemies  of  the 
Administration  considered  the  attack  a  serious  political 
blunder.  Adams,  on  learning  of  the  plan,  warned  that  "to 
reject  the  nomination  would  bring  him  [Van  Buren]  back 
with  increased  power  to  do  mischief  here."  2  And  Thurlow 
Weed,  of  the  "Albany  Journal,"  uncannily  wise  and  pro 
phetic,  sounded  a  solemn  warning  through  his  editorial  col 
umns  that  such  persecution  of  Van  Buren  "would  change 
the  complexion  of  his  prospects  from  despair  to  hope." 
The  plan  persisted  in,  and  "he  would  return  home  as  a  perse 
cuted  man,  and  throw  himself  upon  the  sympathy  of  the  party, 
be  nominated  for  Vice-President,  and  huzzahed  into  office 
at  the  heels  of  General  Jackson."  3 

This  was  the  view  of  Kendall  and  Blair,  and  of  Benton, 
who  refused  to  participate  in  the  Senate  debate.  The  latter 
felt  that,  though  "rejection  was  a  bitter  medicine,  there  was 
health  at  the  bottom  of  the  draught."  He  alone  among  the 
senatorial  friends  of  the  rejected  Minister  appears  to  have 
had  the  prescience  to  appreciate  the  ultimate  advantage. 
To  one  Senator,  rejoicing  over  the  rejection,  he  turned  with 
triumphant  mien:  "You  have  broken  a  Minister  and  made 
a  Vice-President."  But  the  enemies  of  the  Administration 
and  of  the  victim  were  jubilant.  "It  will  kill  him,  sir,  kill 
him  dead;  he  will  never  kick,  sir,  never  kick,"  exclaimed 
Calhoun  in  the  presence  of  "Old  Bullion."  4  And  there  was 
an  immediate  reaction.  Instead  of  killing,  it  made  Van 
Buren.  He  instantly  became  a  party  martyr,  and  idol. 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  the  news  of  his  rejection  reached 
London,  Van  Buren  appeared  at  a  party  at  Talleyrand's, 
smiling,  suave,  undisturbed,  as  though  he  had  scored  a  tri- 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I,  427. 

2  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  22,  1831. 

3  Weed's  Autobiography,  375.  «  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View.  i.  219. 


182    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

umph.    It  was  probably  on  that  day  that  he  heard  from 
Benton,  urging  that  he  hold  himself  free  for  the  Vice-Presi 
dency. 

The  speeches  of  Clay,  Webster,  Hayne,  and  Clayton  were 
published,  the  veil  of  secrecy  having  been  lifted  from  the 
executive  session  for  this  party  purpose,  and  the  effect  was 
wholly  different  from  that  expected.  It  had  been  the  part  of 
Kendall  and  Blair  to  see  to  that.  While  the  Senators  were 
talking,  they  had  been  busy  with  their  pens,  and  when  the 
action  was  taken  the  Democratic  press  furiously  denounced 
the  rejection,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  rose  en  masse  to 
proclaim  the  victim  a  martyr,  mass  meetings  were  called  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Albany  to  arraign  the  Senate, 
and  the  Democratic  members  of  the  New  York  Legislature 
sent  the  President  a  letter  of  condolence.  The  Legislature 
of  New  Jersey  declared  that  after  its  favorite  son,  Senator 
Dickerson,  its  choice  for  Vice-President  would  be  the  martyr. 
And  Isaac  Hill  took  the  stump  in  New  Hampshire  to  de 
nounce  Webster  as  disloyal  to  friendship  and  as  a  sniveling 
hypocrite.1 

But  the  success  of  the  conspiracy  acted  upon  Clay  like  the 
taste  of  blood  on  a  tiger,  and  with  an  insinuative  reference  to 
Livingston's  indebtedness  to  the  Government,  which  he  knew 
had  been  discharged  to  the  penny,  he  would  have  applied  the 
political  proscription  of  the  Whigs  to  the  philosopher  in  the 
State  Department  but  for  the  indignant  protest  of  Dallas. 
Thus  the  character  of  the  fight  to  be  waged  against  the  Ad 
ministration  was  clearly  revealed  within  a  month  after  Clay's 
return  to  public  life. 

IV 

THE  first  month,  too,  witnessed  an  assault  on  the  most 
vulnerable  point  of  the  Administration  lines,  and  an  open 
invitation  to  Calhoun  and  the  Nullifiers  to  join  their  political 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  183 

fortunes  with  the  party  of  Clay.  Both  the  attack  and  the 
invitation  came  from  John  M.  Clayton,  who  was  almost  to 
rival  Clay  in  the  leadership  of  the  Whigs,  and  to  surpass  him 
in  some  of  the  qualities  of  leadership.  When  he  entered  the 
Senate  practically  unknown,  he  was  the  youngest  member  of 
that  body,  but  there  was  enough  in  his  physical  appearance 
and  bearing  to  set  him  out  in  any  group  as  one  destined 
to  command.  Over  six  feet  in  height,  his  figure  well  filled 
out;  of  clear  complexion,  with  large  gray  eyes  of  intellectual 
power,  and  an  enormous,  superbly  shaped  head,  he  looked 
both  the  physical  and  mental  giant.  It  only  required  the  per 
sonal  contact  to  attract  men  to  him  as  steel  shavings  are 
attracted  to  the  magnet.  His  manner  was  easy  and  grace 
ful,  his  disposition  kindly  and  benevolent,  his  wit  keen,  his 
conversational  powers  far  beyond  the  average.  With  a  re 
markable  memory  and  an  unusual  gift  for  analysis,  he  en 
tered  the  Senate  well  equipped  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
literature  and  history.  He  had  great  talents  and  just  fell 
short  of  genius.  As  an  orator,  he  was  logical,  forceful,  at 
times  dramatic  and  eloquent.  Hating  the  Jacksonians,  he 
surveyed  the  field  for  an  opportunity  to  attack,  and  he  found 
it  in  the  Post-Office  Department. 

One  of  Jackson's  most  unfortunate  appointments  had  been 
that  of  Barry  as  Postmaster-General.  A  genial  and  likable 
politician,  a  loyal  friend,  an  ardent  champion  of  the  Presi 
dent,  and,  personally,  a  man  of  undoubted  integrity,  he  was 
pitifully  lacking  in  business  ability,  in  a  capacity  for  organi 
zation,  and  was  all  too  credulous  of  his  subordinates.  Within 
two  years  after  Jackson's  inauguration,  the  politicians  knew 
that  his  department  offered  a  rich  field  for  investigation. 
Knowing  this,  Clayton  introduced  his  celebrated  resolution 
inquiring  into  its  abuses.  That  the  Administration  circles 
were  not  at  all  satisfied  that  nothing  could  be  uncovered  is 
evident  in  the  excitement  the  resolution  caused,  and  every 
effort  was  made  by  Administration  Senators  to  block  it. 


184    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

In  his  initial  speech  in  support  of  his  resolution,  Clayton 
sounded  the  keynote  of  the  Whig  campaign  against  the  pro- 
scriptive  policies  of  Jackson,  but  more  significant  still  was 
his  appeal,  the  first  openly  made,  to  Calhoun,  to  join  with 
the  followers  of  Clay  in  a  concerted  assault  upon  the  Ad 
ministration. 

While  the  young  Senator  from  Delaware  was  speaking, 
Calhoun  sat  in  the  chair  of  the  presiding  officer.  Turning  in 
his  direction,  Clayton  made  the  first  bold  bid  for  his  support 
of  the  party  Opposition. 

"But  it  will  be  seen,"  he  said,  "whether  there  be  not  one 
man  in  this  nation  to  breast  its  [Administration's]  terrors 
whenever  the  President  hurls  his  thunders.  There  are  hawks 
abroad,  sir.  Rumor  alleges  that  that  plundering  falcon  has 
recently  swooped  upon  a  full-fledged  eagle  that  never  yet 
flinched  from  a  contest,  and,  as  might  be  naturally  expected, 
all  await  the  result  with  intense  interest.  It  is  given  out  that 
the  intended  victim  of  proscription  now  is  one  distinguished  far 
above  all  in  office  for  the  vigor  and  splendor  of  his  intellect. 
.  .  .  But  if  that  integrity  and  fairness  which  have  heretofore 
characterized  him  through  life  do  not  desert  him  in  this 
hour  of  greatest  peril,  we  may  yet  live  to  see  one,  who  has 
been  marked  out  as  a  victim,  escape  unscathed  even  by  that 
power  which  has  thus  far  prostrated  alike  the  barriers  of 
public  law  and  the  sanctity  of  private  reputation." 

The  appeal  was  entirely  unnecessary,  if  not  intended  merely 
as  a  public  tribute  to  a  newly  acquired  ally,  for  Calhoun  and 
his  friends  were  already  hostile  to  the  Administration.  It  is 
historically  interesting  only  in  that  it  shows  the  cleverness 
of  the  National  Republicans,  soon  to  adopt  the  name  of 
Whigs,  in  undertaking  to  coalesce  with  all  elements  of  the 
Opposition,  no  matter  how  divergent,  or  even  inconsistent, 
the  causes  leading  to  the  disaffection. 

Thus,  within  a  few  weeks  after  the  assumption  of  the 
leadership  by  Clay,  we  find  Jackson's  favorite  humiliated 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT      185 

by  the  rejection  of  his  nomination;  another  wantonly  in 
sulted  by  the  questioning  of  his  personal  integrity;  a  move 
ment  launched  to  blacken  the  Administration  through  an 
investigation  of  its  most  vulnerable  department;  and  a  plan 
conceived  for  the  consummation  of  an  unholy  alliance  of 
incongruous  elements. 

V 

MEANWHILE  Clay,  devoted  to  the  protective  tariff  policy\ 
anxious  to  save  it  from  crucifixion  by  consent,  and  with  a 
political  eye  on  the  political  effect  of  his  championship  in 
Pennsylvania,  without  which  he  thought  Jackson's  reelection 
impossible,  had  been  busy  formulating  a  new  tariff  which 
was  to  create  more  party  clashes. 

Within  a  month  after  Congress  met,  he  called  a  meeting 
of  the  friends  of  the  protective  tariff  to  determine  plans  for 
party  action.  The  then  existing  "tariff  of  abominations"  l 
was  doomed  by  public  opinion.  Two  months  before  he 
wrote  a  friend  acknowledging  a  revision  inevitable,  and  an 
nouncing  plans  for  one  not  compromising  to  the  protective 
principle.2  The  conference  called  by  Clay  met  at  the  home 
of  Edward  Everett,  Representative  from  Boston,  with  the 
presidential  nominee  himself  presiding.  He  summoned  his 
friends,  not  to  consult,  but  to  take  orders.  He  disclosed 
his  plan  —  a  repeal  of  all  duties  on  tea,  coffee,  spices,  indigo, 
and  similar  articles,  and  thereby  reduce  the  revenue  as  much 
as  seven  millions  that  year  without  interfering  with  the  pre 
vailing  duties  that  had  been  imposed  for  protective  purposes. 
Jackson  intended  to  destroy  the  protective  system  through 
the  accumulation  of  revenue.  It  was  the  duty  of  its  friends 
save  it  through  the  reductions  proposed. 

If  we  may  accept  Adams  as  a  faithful  reporter,  Clay's 
manner   was    "exceedingly   peremptory    and   dogmatical/' 

1  So  described  by  Senator  Smith  of  Maryland. 

2  Clay  to  Brooke,  Clay's  Works,  iv,  314. 


186    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Various  questions,  indicative  of  doubt,  were  asked.  Everett, 
mindful  of  the  ominous  protest  of  the  South,  thought  the 
plan  might  be  interpreted  as  "setting  the  South  at  defiance  " 
Adams,  who  had  a  mind  of  his  own,  reported  that  the  Com 
mittee  on  Manufactures  in  the  House,  of  which  he  was 
chairman,  was  "already  committed  upon  the  principle  that 
the  reduction  of  the  duties  should  be  prospective,  and  not 
to  commence  until  after  the  extinguishment  of  the  public 
debt";  and  he  suggested  that  the  Clay  plan  would  be,  not 
only  "  a  defiance  of  the  South,  but  of  the  President  and  the 
Administration."  The  spirit  of  Clay  is  well  disclosed  in  his 
none  too  gracious  reply  that  "to  preserve,  maintain,  and 
strengthen  the  American  System,  he  would  defy  the  South, 
the  President,  and  the  Devil;  that  if  the  Committee  on  Man 
ufactures  had  committed  themselves  .  . .  they  had  given  a 
very  foolish  and  improvident  pledge;  and  that  there  was  no 
necessity  for  the  payment  of  the  debt  by  the  4th  of  March, 
1833." 

This  led  to  some  debate  between  the  former  President 
and  his  premier,  with  Adams  insisting  that  Jackson's  desire 
to  extinguish  the  debt  should  be  "indulged  and  not  op 
posed,"  and  that  the  President's  idea  "would  take  greatly 
with  the  people."  This  view  piqued  and  mortified  Clay, 
who  had  found  all  the  party  leaders  in  the  conference  be 
comingly  obsequious  with  the  exception  of  Adams.  That 
Adams  was  equally  disgusted  we  may  gather  from  his  de 
scription  of  Clay's  manner  as  "super-presidential,"  and  from 
the  following  entry  in  his  journal:  "Clay's  motives  are  ob 
vious.  He  sees,  that  next  November,  at  the  choice  of  presi 
dential  electors,  the  great  and  irresistible  electioneering  cry 
will  be  the  extinguishment  of  the  public  debt.  By  instant 
repeal  of  the  duties  he  wants  to  withdraw  seven  or  eight 
millions  from  the  Treasury  and  make  it  impossible  to  ex 
tinguish  it  by  the  3rd  of  March,  1833.  It  is  an  electioneering 
movement,  and  this  was  the  secret  of  these  movements,  as 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  187 

well  as  of  the  desperate  efforts  to  take  the  whole  business  of 
the  reduction  of  the  tariff  into  his  own  hands."  l  The  Demo 
cratic  opinion  that  Clay  was  partly  actuated  by  a  petty  par 
tisan  desire  to  deprive  the  Administration  of  the  credit  for 
wiping  out  the  national  debt,  corroborated  as  it  is  by  Adams, 
is  plausible  enough.  At  the  same  time,  it  was  manifestly 
Clay's  purpose  to  rally  the  protected  industries  to  his  stand 
ard  in  the  presidential  campaign. 

Meanwhile  the  lobbyists  of  the  protected  interests,  flock 
ing  to  the  capital,  crowded  the  rotunda  every  morning,  mix 
ing  with  the  statesmen.  Here,  at  the  time,  was  the  Re 
public  in  miniature  —  lobbyists,  statesmen,  correspondents, 
and  plebeians  mingling  in  a  common  arena,  with  the  visiting 
tourists  ranged  about  to  view  the  celebrities  in  their  mo 
ments  of  conversational  unbending.2  Clay  made  the  presen 
tation  of  his  plan  the  opportunity  for  his  first  political 
speech  of  his  campaign.  The  Senate  was  crowded  to  hear 
him.  It  was  not  enough  that  he  should  acknowledge  the 
approach  of  the  extinguishment  of  the  public  debt,  and  base 
his  argument  for  the  reduction  of  duties  upon  that  fact.  The 
possibility  of  the  passing  of  the  debt  during  the  Administra 
tion  of  Jackson  was  clearly  annoying,  and  he  attempted, 
laboriously,  and  at  considerable  length,  to  deprive  it  of  any 
credit.  The  plan  of  the  Administration  to  reduce  no  duties 
on  unprotected  articles  previous  to  March,  1833,  and  to 
make  a  gradual  and  prospective  reduction  on  protected 
articles,  he  denounced  as  a  scheme  to  "destroy  the  protect 
ing  system  by  a  slow  but  certain  poison."  There  was  nothing 
remarkable  in  his  first  speech  except  its  affectation  of  mod 
esty,  and  his  reference  to  old  age  and  declining  power. 

But  he  was  soon  to  find  the  incentive  for  his  greatest 
speech  upon  the  tariff.  Hayne  attacked  the  protective  sys 
tem  with  all  the  vigor  and  venom  of  a  Nullificationist  in  the 
making;  and  Clay  replied  in  the  brilliant  fighting  protec- 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  22,  1831.  2  Parley's  Reminiscences,  i,  46. 


188    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

tionist  speech  which  ranks  as  one  of  the  masterful  efforts  of 
his  life,  and  was  to  be  used  as  a  textbook  for  the  advocates  of 
the  system  for  fifty  years.  Read  even  to-day,  after  the  lapse 
of  almost  a  century,  it  has  a  familiar  sound,  and  transmits 
its  pulsations  from  the  printed  page  as  though  the  reader  felt 
the  heartbeat  of  the  orator. 

Among  the  Southerners  in  the  Senate,  this  speech  created 
the  greatest  excitement  and  the  gravest  forebodings,  with 
John  Tyler  assailing  both  the  principle  of  protection  and  the 
method  of  framing  bills  under  the  principle.  But  the  most 
significant  note  struck  by  Tyler  was  the  warning  that  the 
continuance  of  the  protective  policy  would  inevitably  lead  to 
the  disruption  of  the  Union.  The  speeches  of  both  Clay  and 
Tyler  were  sent  broadcast  over  the  country.  That  of  the 
former  delighted  protectionists  and  impressed  all.  Harrison 
Gray  Otis  wrote  enthusiastically  from  Boston,  but  both 
James  Madison  and  James  Barbour  gently  questioned  the 
taste  of  the  partisan  attack  on  Albert  Gallatin  as  a  "for 
eigner."  l  Highly  complimentary  letters  were  received  by 
Tyler  from  John  Marshall  and  James  Madison,  both  of  whom 
favored  the  reduction  of  the  tariff.2 

And  throughout  it  all,  Clay  found  himself  unable  to  ma 
neuver  Jackson  or  his  friends  into  a  position  of  opposition  to 
the  system.  Amos  Kendall  and  Blair  had  their  hopes  tied 
to  another  issue.  They  had  no  thought  of  sacrificing  the  elec 
toral  vote  of  the  Keystone  State.  The  leaders  of  the  Senate 
opposition  to  the  tariff  were  Hayne  and  Tyler,  neither  of 
whom  was  longer  considered  as  in  the  confidence  of  the  Pres 
ident.  Clay's  speech,  widely  distributed  in  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  and  New  York,  proved  him  a  champion  of  the  system, 
but  nothing  occurred  in  the  Senate  to  prove  Jackson  an  en 
emy.  This  was  the  situation  when  the  real  battle  was  trans 
ferred  to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

1  Clay's  Works,  iv,  328-29. 

*  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers.  I.  438. 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     189 

VI 

THROUGH  some  trickery  or  blunder,  that  portion  of  the 
Presidential  Message  relating  to  "relieving  the  people  from 
unnecessary  taxation  after  the  extinguishment  of  the  public 
debt,"  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means 
a  majority  of  whose  members  were  hostile  to  the  protective 
system;  and  to  the  Committee  on  Manufactures  was  referred 
that  part  concerning  "manufactures  and  the  modification  of 
the  tariff"  —  a  dual  reference  of  the  same  subject  to  rival 
committees.  At  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Manufactures 
was  John  Quincy  Adams  —  certainly  not  a  spokesman  of  the 
Administration;  and  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Ways  and  Means  was  George  McDuffie  of  South  Carolina, 
a  protege  of  Calhoun,  and  now  an  implacable  foe  of  Jackson. 
In  feverish  haste  McDuffie,  representing  the  extreme  free- 
trade  school,  began  the  preparation  of  his  report  and  the 
formulation  of  his  bill  to  get  in  before  the  more  deliberate 
Adams.  He  proceeded  independently  of  the  forthcoming 
report  and  tentative  Administration  measure  from  Secretary 
McLane,  such  was  his  precipitation.  Adams,  more  consid 
erate,  awaited  the  report,  in  the  meanwhile  making  many 
morning  calls  upon  the  Secretary.1  Strangely  enough,  the 
former  President  had  favorably  impressed  many  Southerners 
by  his  admission  that  existing  rates  were  unfair  to  the  South. 
His  position,  as  on  a  more  notable  occasion  later,  was  unique. 
Even  Jackson  was  actively  making  overtures  to  him.  The 
ever-convenient  Colonel  Johnson  of  Tecumseh  fame,  ap 
proaching  the  old  Puritan  with  a  suggestion  of  a  reconcilia 
tion,  tactfully  hinted  that  he  thought  the  President  should 
make  the  first  move.  The  cautious  Adams,  not  at  all  averse, 
reminded  the  emissary  that  Jackson  had  broken,  not  he;  to 
which  Johnson  replied  that  the  General  had  been  poisoned 
by  "scoundrel  office-seekers"  when  he  first  reached  the  capi- 
1  Adams  in  his  Memoirs  makes  numerous  references  to  these  calls. 


190    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

tal.  Would  Adams  dine  at  the  White  House,  if  invited?  The 
wily  old  man  parried  with  the  reminder  that  such  would  only 
be  the  courtesy  customarily  accorded  all  members.  But 
would  Adams  dine  at  the  White  House  with  a  small  and 
select  company?  He  would  not  —  and  on  similar  grounds. 
At  the  end  of  his  rope,  the  anxious  Johnson  asked  Adams  for 
a  suggestion,  only  to  receive  the  reply  that  it  was  a  matter 
for  Jackson  to  decide. l  The  next  day  Adams  received  a  note 
from  Johnson  to  the  effect  that  Jackson  had  "expressed 
great  satisfaction"  over  the  conversation  and  sent  his  "per 
sonal  regards  and  friendship,"  together  with  the  assurance 
that  he  was  "anxious  to  have  social  and  friendly  intercourse 
restored."  Thinking  it  over,  the  suspicious  Adams  could 
not  but  meditate  upon  the  attacks  from  Clay's  friends  if  he 
should  cross  the  threshold  of  the  White  House  —  and  there 
the  matter  appears  to  have  rested  finally.2 

There  has  never  been  another  character  in  American  his 
tory  quite  like  Adams.  His  real  portrait,  self-painted,  peers 
at  the  world  from  between  the  covers  of  his  monumental 
diary,  in  which  he  communed  with  himself  unreservedly, 
and  expressed  his  opinion  of  men  and  their  motives  with 
brutal  frankness.  He  was  a  professional  statesman  of  a  high 
order.  Entering  upon  diplomatic  duties  in  his  youth,  he 
knew  the  cross-currents  of  world  politics  at  an  age  when 
most  Americans  are  laboriously  projecting  themselves  into 
the  politics  of  their  immediate  neighborhood.  From  his  earli 
est  years  he  had  been  in  contact  with  great  minds,  and  with 
men  of  power  and  broad  vision.  A  thorough  scholar,  he 
was,  at  the  same  time,  a  man  of  the  world.  Conscious  of  his 
ability  and  his  advantages,  cold  and  reserved,  and  dignified 
to  the  point  of  frigidity,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  his 
supercilious  attitude  toward  men  less  favored,  and  yet  placed 
in  lofty  station.  Inspired  by  the  highest  ideals  of  public 
service,  holding  himself  under  such  rigid  discipline  as  to  have 
1  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  2,  1832.  *  Ibid..  March  3, 1832. 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     191 

made  himself  immune  to  the  small  vices,  placing  duty  above 
friendship,  scarcely  ever  yielding  his  dignity  to  mirth,  and  on 
those  rare  occasions  smiling  sardonically,  he  stood  upon  an 
isolated  peak  —  of  humanity,  and  yet  separated  from  it.1  No 
one  living  the  monastic  life  could  have  lived  more  by  rule, 
or  have  scourged  himself  more  faithfully  to  his  tasks. 

Of  friendships,  he  knew  little  from  experience.  Naturally 
of  a  suspicious  disposition,  he  suspected  treachery  where  it 
was  not.  Holding  to  no  ordinary  standard  of  perfection,  he 
could  not  forgive  the  imperfections  of  his  fellows.  Even 
the  transcendent  genius  of  Clay  could  not  hide  from  him  the 
great  man's  lack  of  education.  One  searches  the  pages  of  his 
diary  in  eager  quest  of  some  complimentary  references  — 
there  are  scarcely  any.  That  he  bitterly  realized  his  isolation 
is  clearly  disclosed.  "I  am  a  man  of  reserve,"  he  wrote, 
"cold,  austere  and  forbidding  manners.  My  political  adver 
saries  say  a  gloomy  misanthrope;  my  personal  enemies,  an 
unsocial  savage.  With  a  knowledge  of  the  actual  defects  of 
my  character,  I  have  not  had  the  pliability  to  reform  it.'* 
That  such  a  man,  entertaining  such  an  opinion  of  his  own 
merits  and  the  failings  of  his  contemporaries,  should  have 
consented  to  serve  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress,  after  hav 
ing  served  in  the  Presidency,  can  only  mean  that  he  loved  his 
country  and  sought  the  opportunity  for  service.  That  it  was 
not  to  punish  his  enemies,  we  shall  find  on  more  than  one 
occasion  when  he  took  his  stand  with  the  Administration  of 
the  man  who  displaced  him.  Not  least  among  the  merits 
of  Adams  was  his  capacity  to  work  in  serious  cooperation 
with  McLane  in  the  moulding  of  the  tariff  of  1832. 

Quite  a  different  type,  and  in  some  respects  a  greater  genius, 
was  George  McDuffie.  His  career  was  a  mingling  of  romance 
and  tragedy.  A  child  of  poverty,  the  protege  of  a  Calhoun,2 

1  March,  in  his  Reminiscences  of  Congress,  describes  him  as  "cold,  passionless  and 
inscrutable  as  the  Egyptian  sphinx,  whose  fate,  too,  his  own  resembled." 

2  Brother  of  John  C. 


192    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

he  had  while  yet  in  college  been  regarded  "as  a  young  man 
of  extraordinary  talents,"  albeit  at  that  time  "he  had  not 
that  passionate  and  eloquent  declamation  which  he  was 
afterwards  to  display  in  Congress."  l  After  hearing  his  great 
speech  on  the  tariff  in  1827,  Josiah  Quincy,  who  heard  him, 
described  him  as  "the  most  sensational  orator  of  the  time."2 
In  the  fight  against  the  Panama  Mission,  Sargent  thought 
him  "decidedly  the  most  violent  and  aggressive  speaker  ar 
rayed  against  the  Administration."  3  His  passionate  and 
impulsive  nature  frequently  led  to  personal  encounters;  and 
in  reaching  an  understanding  of  his  irritable  and  sour  dis 
position,  it  is  profitable  to  know  that  just  before  entering 
Congress  he  had  been  wounded  in  the  spine  in  a  duel,  and 
never  afterwards  knew  a  day  free  from  personal  discomfort. 
This  wound,  which  ultimately  killed  him,  changed  a  good- 
tempered  and  jovial  man  into  the  irritable,  morose,  and 
nervous  creature  known  to  history.4  The  indifference  of  the 
protectionists  to  the  interests  of  the  South,  and  the  intem 
perate  attacks  of  the  abolitionists  upon  the  Southern  people, 
acted  upon  the  diseased  genius  as  an  irritant  and  drove  him 
to  extremes.  Even  so,  he  rejected  Nullification  as  a  remedy, 
and  insisted  that  the  sole  recourse  of  the  Southerners  was 
revolution.5  Intellectually  honest,  morally  clean,  physically 
ailing,  he  put  such  of  himself  as  he  cared  for  the  world  to  see 
into  his  public  acts.  He  withdrew  into  himself  —  taciturn, 
lonely.  "A  spare,  grim  looking  man,  who  was  an  admirer  of 
Milton,  and  who  was  never  known  to  smile  or  jest,"  as  Perley 
Poore  describes  him.6  His  health  gone,  his  life  uncertain, 
an  idolized  wife  taken  from  him  within  a  year,  his  leader's 

1  O'NealTs  Bench  and  Bar  of  South  Carolina. 

2  Figures  of  the  Past. 

3  Public  Men  and  Events,  I,  117. 

4  O'NealFs  Bench  and  Bar  of  South  Carolina. 

6  "  I  know  that  he  had  no  faith  in  Nullification."  (O'Neall.)  "  It  would  seem  that 
he  was  willing  to  rest  the  case  of  the  State  upon  the  bare  right  of  revolution."  (David 
F.  Houston's  Study  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina.) 

6  Perley' s  Reminiscences,  i,  81. 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  193 

aspirations  wrecked,  his  section  threatened,  it  is  not  strange 
that  he  poured  forth  on  Andrew  Jackson  such  torrents  of 
eloquent  vituperation. 

VII 

STANDING  not  on  ceremony,  McDuffie  hastened  to  report  a 
bill,  accompanied  by  an  elaborate  report  in  the  nature  of  an 
indictment  of  the  protective  system,  which  "ought  to  be 
abandoned  with  all  convenient  and  practical  despatch,  upon 
every  principle  of  justice,  patriotism  and  sound  policy."  The 
bill  provided  an  immediate  reduction  of  duties  on  all  articles 
except  iron,  steel,  salt,  cotton-bagging,  hemp  and  flax,  and 
on  everything  made  of  cotton,  wool,  and  iron,  to  a  basis  of 
twenty-five  per  cent  ad  valorem.  On  the  excepted  articles  the 
reduction  was  to  be  gradual,  tumbling  to  twenty-five  per 
cent  at  once,  to  eighteen  and  three  quarters  per  cent  on  June 
30,  1833,  and  to  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent  one  year  later. 
With  Adams  still  laboring  on  his  bill,  McDuffie  called  his 
up  with  a  slashing  speech.  This  prodigiously  long  philippic 
was  historical  in  that  it  tended  to  force  the  issue  of  Nullifi- 

^tion  a  little  earlier  than  its  sponsors  had  planned. 
In  the  meanwhile  the  Administration  measure,  with  Mc- 
Lane's  report,  had  been  submitted,  providing  for  the  repeal 
of  the  existing  tariff  after  March  3,  1833,  and  the  reduction 
of  the  revenue  to  the  financial  requirements  of  the  Govern 
ment.  This  contemplated  the  reduction  of  the  revenue  to 
$12,000,000  a  year,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  rates  so  as 
sufficiently  to  protect  the  great  interests  involved,  r 

Using  the  Administration  measure  as  a  basis,  Adams  there 
upon  prepared  his  bill  and  report.  In  his  statement  the  patri 
otic  statesman,  indifferent  to  the  clamor  of  party,  or  class, 
or  section,  shines  forth  luminously.  It  may  have  been  un 
necessary  to  expose  the  protectionist's  fallacy  that  raising 
the  duties  lowers  the  price  of  the  domestic  product;  equally 
unnecessary  to  warn  the  Southerners  that  a  persistence  in 


194    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

their  course  would  lead  to  appalling  consequences,  but  he 
made  these  points.  In  presenting  his  bill,  Adams  frankly  ex 
plained  that  it  was  based  on  the  Administration  measure, 
with  some  changes  as  to  details. 

With  the  Adams  bill  before  it,  the  House  made  short  shrift 
of  the  McDuffie  measure.  The  protectionists  were  in  de 
spair.  The  Legislatures  of  Pennsylvania  and  Connecticut 
passed  condemnatory  resolutions,  and  mass  meetings  were 
held  protesting  against  reductions.  An  unsuccessful  attempt 
was  made  to  substitute  the  Clay  Senate  plan.  And  yet  Clay 
himself  was  fairly  well  satisfied,  and  on  its  passage  in  the 
House  wrote  that  "with  some  alterations  it  will  be  a  very 
good  measure  of  protection."  1  At  the  time  he  wrote,  how 
ever,  he  was  convinced  that  the  alterations  would  be  made 
in  the  Senate  and  accepted  by  the  House,  and  upon  the 
failure  of  these  plans  to  materialize  hangs  another  story  of 
politics. 

The  Senate  lost  no  time  making  amendments,  and  as  it 
was  now  July,  with  all  anxious  to  adjourn,  no  time  was 
wasted  on  unnecessary  speeches,  and  the  amendments, 
which  were  numerous,  were  hurried  through.  In  a  few  in 
stances,  not  many,  the  protectionists  lost,  but  on  the  whole 
theirs  was  the  victory  when  the  bill  went  back  to  the  House. 
There  a  few  of  the  Senate  amendments  were  accepted,  but 
the  majority  were  rejected  and  the  bill  was  thrown  into 
conference. 

And  here  enters  one  of  the  comedy-tragedies  of  politics. 
Calhoun  was  absent,  Tazewell  in  the  chair,  when  the  measure 
was  returned  to  the  Senate.  The  motion  for  a  conference 
carried.  And  then  it  was,  in  the  naming  of  the  Senate  con 
ferees,  that  Tazewell  either  made  a  blunder  or  turned  a 
trick.  Hayne,  named  as  the  minority  member,  was  expected 
to  act  badly,  but  the  protectionists  pinned  implicit  faith  in 
Wilkins  of  Pennsylvania  and  Dickerson  of  New  Jersey,  the 
1  Clay  to  Brooke.  Clay's  Works,  iv,  340. 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT  195 

former  a  business  man,  manufacturer,  banker  from  a  protec 
tionist  State,  the  latter  with  a  powerful  protectionist  con 
stituency.  Unhappily  the  friends  of  the  Senate  bill  did  not 
attach  sufficient  importance  to  the  candidacy  of  both  men 
for  the  Vice-Presidential  nomination  with  Jackson  —  to  the 
pull  of  personal  ambition.  Whatever  their  special  motives  in 
surrendering  to  the  conferees  of  the  House,  they  gave  only 
a  perfunctory  support  to  the  Senate  amendments  and  capit 
ulated. 

The  amazement  and  indignation  of  Clay  and  his  followers 
were  unbounded.  Clay  sharply  cross-examined  Wilkins  and 
Dickerson  upon  the  proceedings  in  the  conference,  and  then 
had  to  content  himself  by  joining  Webster  in  a  warm  denun 
ciation  of  the  surrender.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done,  how 
ever,  but  for  the  Senate  to  recede,  and  the  bill  was  passed  and 
promptly  signed  by  Jackson. 

Thus  the  tariff  battle  on  which  Clay  relied  to  strengthen 
him  in  the  pre-presidential  contest  was  practically  barren 
of  party  significance.  By  no  sophistry  or  reasoning  could 
the  protectionist  States  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  be 
turned  against  Jackson,  who  had  promptly  signed  the  bill 
that  Adams  had  sponsored,  and  which  had  been  supported 
by  such  Administration  Democrats  as  Isaac  Hill,  Dickerson, 
Marcy,  Wilkins,  Grundy,  White,  and  Benton. 

The  tariff  issue  was  dead  before  the  campaign  was  fairly* 
begun. 

/ 

vm 

IF  Clay  had  failed  to  embarrass  the  Administration  on  the 
tariff,  the  keen  Jacksonian  politicians  were  to  be  more  suc 
cessful  in  embarrassing  Clay  on  the  land  question.  This  was 
a  peculiarly  delicate  subject  for  Clay  to  touch  in  the  midst  of 
the  campaign.  In  the  Southern  and  Western  States  more 
than  1,090,000,000  acres  remained  the  property  of  the  Na 
tional  Government  —  a  vast  empire.  The  proceeds  from  the 


196    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

sale  of  these  lands  had  been  originally  dedicated  to  the  pay 
ment  of  the  national  debt;  and  now  with  the  extinguishment 
of  the  debt  in  sight,  all  manner  of  schemes  were  advanced  as 
to  the  future  disposition  of  the  lands  and  the  proceeds.  For 
a  number  of  years  Benton,  with  characteristic  tenacity,  had 
been  urging  his  plan  of  graduated  prices,  with  free  grants 
to  actual  settlers,  and  he  had  won  Jackson  over  to  his  theory 
with  Edmund  Burke's  proposition,  advanced  in  his  speech  on 
the  disposition  of  the  crown  lands  in  England,  that  the  prin 
cipal  revenue  to  be  had  from  uncultivated  tracts  "springs 
from  the  improvement  of  the  population  of  the  kingdom." 
The  sturdy  Missourian  looked  with  repugnance  upon  the 
idea  of  considering  these  uncultivated  acres  as  sources  of 
revenue,  rather  than  as  an  opportunity  for  settlers,  and  he 
gradually  converted  the  Democratic  Party  to  his  point  of 
view. 

To  make  matters  all  the  more  embarrassing  to  Clay,  his 
party  had  been  placed  in  the  position  of  deliberately  with 
holding  this  vast  domain  from  the  axe  of  the  pioneer  and  the 
spade  of  the  cultivator,  in  the  interest  of  the  manufacturers 
of  the  East.  This  had  resulted  from  the  unfortunate  wording 
of  an  official  report  of  Richard  Rush,  a  colleague  of  Clay's  in 
the  Cabinet  of  Adams,  in  which  he  had  lamented  the  pref 
erence  of  the  American  people  for  agricultural  over  manufac 
turing  pursuits.  The  report  had  been  referred  to  Clay  whose 
practiced  political  eye  instantly  saw  the  possibilities  in  the 
perversion  or  exaggeration  of  the  meaning  of  these  para 
graphs,  and  he  had  fruitlessly  urged  their  elimination.  The 
Democrats  were  quick  to  grasp  their  opportunity.  The  pro 
tectionists,  Clay  and  his  friends,  planned  that  the  National 
Government  should,  by  holding  on  to  the  lands,  retard  their 
settlement  by  maintaining  prices  prohibitive  to  the  settler; 
they  proposed  to  maintain  a  large  labor  market  in  the  indus 
trial  labor  centers  of  the  East  where  competition  would  be 
keen  enough  to  keep  down  wages.  For  the  sake  of  the  pro- 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     197 

tected  interests,  they  were  ready  to  sacrifice  the  opportunities 
of  the  poor  of  the  Eastern  cities  and  make  them  the  galley 
slaves  of  the  factories;  retard  the  development  of  the  West, 
and  immolate  the  national  interest  on  the  altar  of  greed. 
And  there  was  just  enough  truth  in  these  charges,  rather 
luridly  put  forth,  to  make  them  exceedingly  dangerous  in  a 
presidential  year. 

The  issue  had  been  accentuated  by  the  suggestion  of  Mc- 
Lane,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  the  public  lands  should 
be  sold  to  the  States  in  which  they  were  located,  and  the  pro 
ceeds  apportioned  among  all  the  States  in  the  Union.  This, 
naturally  enough,  made  an  instant  appeal  to  the  States  most 
intimately  concerned,  and  six  of  the  new  Commonwealths 
hastened  to  petition  Congress  for  the  cession.  This  brought 
the  subject  before  the  Senate,  and  in  the  spring  of  1832  two 
motions  were  submitted,  one  to  inquire  into  the  wisdom  of 
reducing  the  price  of  the  public  lands,  the  other  into  the 
expediency  of  the  McLane  proposition. 

And  it  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  Jacksonians  turned  the 
trick  on  Clay  and  forced  him  into  the  open  as  an  aggressive 
enemy  of  the  wishes  of  the  new  States.  With  a  regular  Senate 
Committee  on  Public  Lands,  composed  of  men  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  the  amazing  motion  was  made 
and  carried  that  the  matter  be  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Manufactures  of  which  Clay  was  chairman.  The  friends  of 
the  candidate  bitterly  protested  against  the  reference;  and 
Clay  himself  "protested,"  "entreated,"  and  "implored"  that 
the  reference  be  changed  to  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands. 
"I  felt,"  he  said  later,  "that  the  design  was  to  place  in  my 
hands  a  many-edged  instrument  which  I  could  not  touch 
without  being  wounded."  l 

Unable  to  extricate  himself  from  the  embarrassment,  Clay 
set  to  work,  and  in  a  short  time  submitted  a  report,  accompa 
nied  by  a  bill,  providing  against  the  reduction  of  the  price  of 

1  Clay's  Works,  iv,  331. 


198    PARTY  BATTLES  OP  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  land,  but  for  granting  to  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Alabama, 
Missouri,  and  Mississippi  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent  of  the 
proceeds  from  the  sale  of  lands  within  their  borders,  to  be 
applied  to  the  purposes  of  education  and  internal  improve 
ments.  This,  of  course,  was  a  frank  attempt  to  prevent  the 
resentment  of  the  people  of  these  States  from  asserting  itself 
at  the  polls.  The  remainder  of  the  proceeds  was  then  to  be 
apportioned  to  the  remaining  States,  according  to  their  popu 
lation,  to  be  used  for  the  schools,  internal  improvements,  and 
negro  colonization.  The  act  was  to  remain  in  force  for  five 
years,  provided  no  war  intervened,  in  which  event  all  the 
proceeds  were  to  be  used  in  defraying  the  expenses  of  the 
conflict.  In  this  way  Clay  attempted  to  maintain  the  exist 
ing  economic  conditions  while  satisfying  the  new  States 
whose  electoral  votes  he  sought. 

If  the  political  intent  of  the  reference  to  Clay's  committee 
had  been  in  the  least  open  to  doubt,  all  such  was  removed 
by  the  action  of  the  Senate  in  thereupon  ordering  the  matter 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands.  Again  Clay 
vehemently  protested.  He  had  not  wanted  to  report  upon 
the  subject.  He  had  protested  against  the  reference.  But  the 
reference  having  been  made,  and  the  report  submitted,  he 
protested  anew  against  the  reflection  upon  his  committee 
implied  by  the  new  reference. 

At  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands  was  Senator 
King  of  Alabama,  but  Clay  was  right  in  ascribing  the  au 
thorship  of  the  report,  soon  to  be  submitted,  to  Thomas  H. 
Benton.1  This  report  vigorously  assailed  the  reasoning  and 
conclusions  of  Clay;  attacked  the  disposition  to  look  upon 
the  public  lands  as  useful  primarily  for  revenue  and  second 
arily  for  settlement,  and  reversed  the  order;  and  deprecated 
the  suggestion  of  the  use  of  the  money  to  be  distributed 

1  "  He  [King]  has  availed  himself  of  another's  aid,  and  the  hand  of  the  Senator 
from  Missouri  is  as  visible  in  the  composition,  as  if  his  name  had  been  subscribed 
to  the  instrument."  (Clay's  speech  of  June  20,  1832.) 


CLAY  LEADS  THE  PARTY  ONSLAUGHT     199 

among  the  States  for  the  colonization  of  the  negroes  as  cal 
culated  to  "light  up  the  fires  of  the  extinguished  conflagra 
tion  which  lately  blazed  on  the  Missouri  question."  It  fa 
vored  the  reduction  of  the  price  of  land  to  one  dollar  per  acre 
during  the  next  five  years;  then  to  fifty  cents,  with  fifteen 
per  cent  of  the  proceeds  to  be  apportioned  among  the  States. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  objections  to  the  Democratic 
plan,  it  gave  promise  of  an  earlier  redemption  of  the  wilder 
ness  by  the  cultivation  of  man,  and  the  more  speedy  enhance 
ment  of  the  land  of  the  pioneers  already  in  possession. 

Keenly  appreciative  of  the  purpose  of  his  enemies,  Clay 
delivered  a  long  and  powerful  speech,  his  second  campaign 
speech  in  the  Senate,  plausibly  defending  his  position,  ex 
plaining  Rush's  meaning,  and  attempting  to  divert  the  greed 
of  the  new  States  into  a  different  channel.  That  he  made  a 
profound  impression  may  be  properly  assumed  from  the  fact 
that  the  bill  passed  the  Senate,  although  it  was  checked  by  a 
liostile  House. 

I    Thus  his  friends  flattered  themselves  that  he  had  scored  a 

|triumph  and  outwitted  his  foes.    The  old  school  politicians 

|  still  gauged  public  opinion  by  the  roll-calls  of  the  Congress. 

The  new  school,  which  came  in  with  Jackson,  were  least  of 

all  concerned  with  the  views  of  the  politicians  at  the  capital. 

They  were  interesting  themselves  with  the  plain  voters,  and 

were  devising  means  for  reaching  these  in  the  campaign  to 

follow.   They  had  sensed  the  feelings  and  the  prejudices  and 

suspicions  of  the  pioneers  of  the  new  States.    They  were  an 

agricultural  people  and  easily  inflamed  by  the  suggestion 

that  their  interests  were  to  be  subordinated  or  sacrificed  to 

the  interests  of  the  Eastern  industrial  centers.   They  wanted 

the  speedy  felling  of  the  forests,  the  cultivation  of  the  fields, 

t  the  building  of  homes  and  schools  and  churches,  and  the  Ben- 

\ton  plan  of  reduced  prices  and  preemption  for  actual  settlers 

appealed  to  them  as  in  harmony  with  their  desires. 

And  thus,  while  the  friends  of  Clay  were  rejoicing  in  what 


200    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

they  conceived  to  be  the  unanswerable  logic  of  the  Clay  re 
port,  the  politicians  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  Kendall  and 
Blair,  were  rejoicing  in  having,  in  documentary  form,  the 
proof  that  Clay  and  the  protectionists  were  hostile  to  the 
wishes  of  the  new  States.  Amos  Kendall  knew  that  "free 
trade  and  free  lands"  was  a  shibboleth  that  these  pioneers 
could  understand.  And  while  Clay,  Webster,  and  Clayton 
were  rejoicing  over  the  passage  of  the  bill  in  the  Senate,  Ken 
dall  and  Blair  were  joyously  arranging  to  spread  the  story  of 
that  triumph  to  the  voters  of  the  new  States.  After  all,  they 
had  succeeded  in  their  purpose.  They  had  a  Clay  and  a 
Jackson  report  to  hold  side  by  side,  and  the  event  disclosed 
that  the  politicians  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  were  wiser  than 
the  politicians  of  the  Senate  house. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE 

I 

DURING  the  early  days  of  the  Jackson  regime,  a  remarkable 
and  little  remembered  figure  passed  furtively  in  and  out  of 
the  closet  of  the  President,  playing  a  quiet,  but  none  the  less 
effective,  part  in  the  moulding  of  policies.  This  was  none 
other  than  James  A.  Hamilton,  son  of  the  creator  of  the  Na 
tional  Bank.  Then  a  trusted  brave  of  the  tribe  of  Tammany, 
the  reflector  of  Van  Buren,  the  supporter  of  Jackson,  he  had 
fought  the  Federalist  machine  of  New  York,  been  made  acting 
Secretary  of  State  by  the  President  pending  the  arrival 
of  Van  Buren,  and  later  been  appointed  District  Attorney  of 
New  York.  For  several  years  on  the  eve  of  portentous  events 
he  glided  into  the  capital.  That  the  son  of  Alexander  Hamil 
ton  should  have  had  such  intimate  relations  with  the  Presi 
dent  who  denounced  what  he  thought  to  be  the  persecution 
of  Aaron  Burr,  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  history. 

When  the  first  Jackson  Message  was  under  consideration, 
Hamilton,  in  response  to  the  requests  of  Van  Buren,  Lewis, 
and  others,  reached  Washington  to  confer  with  Jackson.  He 
hastened  to  Van  Buren,  who  was  no  doubt  prolific  of  sugges 
tions;  thence  to  the  White  House  to  be  cordially  received. 
The  following  morning  he  breakfasted  with  the  President, 
who  urged  him  to  remain  at  the  White  House  while  revising 
the  Message.  In  going  over  the  draft,  which  he  found  the 
"work  of  different  hands,"  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  "the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  was  attacked  at  great  length  in  a 
loose,  newspaper  slashing  style."  He  found  much  to  do.  It 
was  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  Jackson,  hearing  some 


202    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

one  tinkering  with  the  fire  in  the  grate,  entered  Hamilton's 
room  in  his  nightgown. 

"My  dear  Colonel,  why  are  you  up  so  late?"  he  asked. 

"I  am  at  my  work  which  I  intend  to  finish  before  I  sleep," 
Hamilton  replied. 

At  which  the  mulatto  who  slept  on  a  rug  in  Jackson's 
room  was  sent  in  to  keep  Hamilton's  fire  going.  At  eight  in 
the  morning  the  latter  appeared  in  the  President's  room  to 
report  the  completion  of  his  task. 

"What  did  you  say  about  the  Bank?"  Jackson  asked 
instantly. 

"Very  little." 

And  the  son  of  Alexander  Hamilton  read  the  brief  para 
graph  challenging  the  constitutionality  and  the  expediency 
of  the  Bank  his  father  had  created,  and  declaring  that  it  had 
"failed  in  the  great  end  of  establishing  a  uniform  and  sound 
currency." 

"Do  you  think  that  is  all  I  ought  to  say?"  asked  Jackson. 

"I  think  you  ought  to  say  nothing  about  the  Bank  at  pres 
ent,"  was  the  response. 

"Oh,  but,  my  friend,  I  am  pledged  against  the  Bank,  but 
if  you  think  that  is  enough,  so  let  it  be."  1 

Some  students  of  the  period  are  prone  to  ascribe  Jackson's 
hostility  to  the  Bank  to  a  personal  grievance  of  Isaac  Hill. 
The  flimsy  assumption  that  the  President's  Bank  policy  was 
born  of  the  quarrel  of  the  Concord  editor  with  Biddle,  be 
cause  of  the  retention  in  the  presidency  of  the  Portsmouth 
branch  of  Jeremiah  Mason,  is  unimpressive.  Equally  absurd 
to  deny  that  the  Mason  incident  played  no  part.  According 
to  some,  Hill,  in  his  attempt  to  force  the  removal  of  Mason, 
was  wholly  actuated  by  a  desire  to  get  political  control  of  the 
institution;  to  others,  to  the  inability  of  the  editor-politician 
to  get  a  loan.  The  truth  is  that  the  hostility  to  Mason  was 
not  confined  to  politicians,  but  was  shared  by  many  of  the 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  150. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  203 

merchants  of  New  Hampshire.  This  hostility  was  due  to 
Mason's  austere  action,  on  discovering  that  some  bad  loans 
had  been  made  on  speculative  ventures,  in  exacting  hard 
terms  of  the  local  merchants.  The  petition  sent  to  Biddle  by 
Hill  contained  the  names  of  sixty  members  of  the  legislature, 
and  most  of  the  business  men  of  Portsmouth,  of  both  parties.1 
The  president  of  the  Portsmouth  branch  was  a  great  lawyer, 
a  statesman  of  reputation,  an  orator  of  power,  and  a  par 
tisan  as  bitter  and  intolerant  as  ever  breathed  the  proscrip- 
tive  air  of  New  Hampshire.  In  the  correspondence  which 
followed  between  Secretary  Ingham,  who  is  said  to  have  had 
a  personal  grievance,2  and  Nicholas  Biddle,  the  president  of 
the  Bank,  who  has  been  variously  described  according  to  the 
bias  of  the  writer,  was  unquestionably  flippant  and  intolerant 
of  suggestions  from  the  Administration.  While  his  position 
in  the  Mason  incident  can  be  justified,  he  was  unnecessarily 
arrogant  and  tactless;  but  quickly  realizing  his  mistake,  he 
thereafter  changed  his  tone,  and  throughout  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1829  made  every  effort  to  conciliate  the  President. 
His  letters  of  this  period  to  the  heads  of  the  various  branches 
insisting  that  the  Bank  be  kept  out  of  politics  smack  of  sin 
cerity.3!  But  the  harm  had  been  done,  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  conclude  that  Amos  Kendall  was  deeply  concerned 
in  the  President's  decision  to  attack  the  Bank  in  his  first 
Message.  Certain  it  is  that  a  letter  from  Kendall  to  Noah  in 
November  led  the  "New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer"  to 
launch  its  editorial  campaign  against  the  institution.  This 
letter,  announcing  the  presidential  decision  to  attack  in  his 
first  Message,  and  presenting  an  argument  in  support  of  the 
position  he  was  to  assume,  was  sent  by  Noah  to  the  newspaper,1^ 

1  Hill's  explanatory  speech  in  the  Senate,  March  3, 1834,  differs  radically  from  the 
generally  accepted  story,  and  has  the  ring  of  truth. 

2  Schouler,  iv,  44. 

8  In  Reginald  C.  McGrane's  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  see  Biddle  to  John 
Harper,  STTto  John  Nichol,  72;  to  Robert  Lenox.  72;  to  A.  Dickens,  77;  to  Major 
Lewis.  80;  to  Samuel  Jaudon,  82. 


o 

204    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  "a  portion  of  Amos  Kendall's  letter,  with  a  head  and 
tail  put  to  it  ...  was  published  as  an  editorial  the  next  morn 
ing";  and  this  "was  the  first  savage  attack  on  the  United 
States  Bank"  in  the  columns  of  that  paper.1  And  almost 
immediately  afterwards  James  Gordon  Bennett,  writing  for 
the  "Courier  and  Enquirer,"  began  a  series  of  powerful  ar 
ticles  in  support  of  the  policy  of  that  journal.2 

Indeed,  if  an  explanation  for  Jackson's  position  must  be 
sought  in  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  it  would  be  more  profitable 
to  seek  it  in  the  principles  of  Amos  Kendall,  who  had  written 
against  the  Bank  long  before  he  had  met  the  President,  and 
while  still  on  friendly  terms  with  Clay.  Others  of  Jackson's 
intimates  were  equally  hostile.  The  views  of  Benton  had 
been  urged  for  years;  and  Hugh  L.  White,  Senator  from  Ten 
nessee,  one  of  his  confidential  advisers  in  the  early  days  of 
his  Administration,  had  long  distrusted  the  institution  a,s 
tending  to  extravagant  speculation,  and  as  threatening  the 
liberties  of  the  people  through  its  increasing  influence  in  elec 
tions.3  But  Jackson  himself  needed  no  propagandists  at  his 
elbow.  He  had  been  prejudiced  against  the  Bank  for  twenty 
years  by  Clay's  slashing  speech  against  it  when  the  first 

ik  applied  for  a  recharter.*  \ 
In  his  Message  of  December,  1830,  Jackson  dismissed  the 

lank  in  a  paragraph,  clearly  indicative  of  unfriendliness; 
md  in  December,  1831,  he  scarcely  mentioned  it  at  all,  ex- 

jpt  to  call  attention  to  his  previous  statements.  But  from 
the  moment  the  first  Message  was  read,  Biddle's  complacency 
was  disturbed.  His  correspondence  during  the  next  two  years 
shows  him  active  and  alert  in  attempts  to  conciliate  his  foe 
in  the  White  House.  Less  than  a  week  after  one  son  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton  had  penned  the  first  warning  of  war,  Biddle 
was  reading  a  letter  from  Alexander  Hamilton,  Jr.,  a  brother, 
assuring  him  that  the  die  was  cast,  the  war  inevitable,  and 

1  Pray,  Memoirs  of  James  Gordon  Bennett,  I,  148.  a  Ibid. 

8  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White.  80.  4  Parton.  n.  654. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  205 

warning  him  against  the  presidential  aspirations  of  Van 
Buren,  to  whose  political  fortunes  his  brother  was  then 
attached.1  Biddle  replied  that  the  Bank  views  of  the  Mes 
sage  were  Jackson's,  honestly  held,  and  that  for  the  time  the 
Bank's  policy  would  be  one  of  "abstinence  and  self-defense."  2 
"The  expressions  of  the  Message  were  the  President's  own," 
he  wrote  the  head  of  the  Washington  branch  immediately 
afterward,  "...  and  inserted  in  opposition  to  the  wishes,  if 
not  the  advice  of  all  his  habitual  counsellors.  It  is  not,  there 


fore,  a  cabinet  measure,  nor  a  party  measure,  but  a  personal 
measure?*--8  And  had  he  not  ample  encouragement  in  the 
letters  of  Major  Lewis,  a  household  guest  of  Jackson's,  rec 
ommending  the  appointment  of  certain  men  to  the  director 
ship  of  the  branch  in  Nashville?  4  Nevertheless,  he  was  not 
at  all  positive  that  the  recharter  might  not  be  made  a  party 
measure.  Especially  concerned  with  Van  Buren's  attitude, 
he  was  being  constantly  warned  against  him,  but  his  advices 
were  contradictory.  Within  a  month  he  was  reassured  by 
one  correspondent 6  and  alarmed  by  Clay,  who  wrote  him 
from  Ashland  that,  while  in  Richmond,  Van  Buren  had  en 
tered  into  a  conspiracy  with  politicians  to  destroy  the  Bank.6 
And  to  add  to  the  mystic  maze  of  contradictions,  Major 
Lewis  wrote,  in  a  "confidential"  note,  that  the  report  that 
Jackson  would  veto  a  bill  rechartering  the  Bank  "must  be 
some  mistake  because  the  report  was  at  variance  with  what  I 
had  heard  him  say  upon  the  subject."  7  Still  another  corre 
spondent  8  informed  him  that  Van  Buren  had  told  him  that 
"he  disapproved  of  that  part  of  the  message  and  was  not 
hostile  to  the  Bank." 

About  this  time  Jackson  journeyed  to  the  Hermitage,  and 

1  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  88.  2  Ibid.,  91. 

3  Biddle  to  Samuel  Smith,  ibid.,  94.  «  Ibid.,  97. 

6  Charles  Augustus  Davis,  ibid.,  101. 
8  Clay  to  Biddle,  ibid.,  105. 

7  Lewis  to  Biddle,  ibid..  103. 

8  Roswell  L.  Colt,  ibid.,  104. 


206    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Biddle  asked  a  leading  citizen  of  Nashville  to  "feel  him  out." 
The  banker's  correspondent  entertained  the  President  at  his 
home,  and  after  a  confidential  chat  felt  justified  in  advising 
Biddle  that  he  was  "well  convinced  that  he  will  not  interfere 
with  Congress  on  the  subject  of  the  renewing  of  the  charter."  1 
By  this  time,  however,  Biddle  had  convinced  himself  that 
political  expediency  would  determine  the  President's  atti 
tude,  and  in  a  letter  to  one  of  Jackson's  personal  friends  he 
pointed  out  the  disastrous  political  results  to  the  Adminis 
tration  if  the  impression  gained  ground  that  it  was  "un 
friendly  to  sound  currency."  He  even  graciously  indicated 
the  line  the  next  Message  might  take  to  save  the  Adminis 
tration  from  that  embarrassment.2  But  before  that  sugges 
tion  reached  its  destination,  Clay  solemnly  wrote  him  that 
only  a  devoted  friend  of  the  Bank  in  the  Presidency  would 
make  a  recharter  possible,  and  warned  him  against  Van 
Buren.  He  was  convinced  that  the  Jacksonian  politicians 
had  determined  to  make  the  Bank  question  the  issue  in  the 
next  campaign.  "I  have  seen  many  evidences  of  it,"  he 
wrote.  "The  editors  of  certain  papers  have  received  their 
orders  to  that  effect,  and  embrace  every  occasion  to  act  in 
conformity  with  them."  3  But  when  Congress  met  in  De 
cember,  and  Jackson  reiterated  his  views  on  the  Bank,  Bid- 
die  was  earnestly  urged  from  Washington  to  meet  the  issue 
at  once  by  applying  for  a  new  charter.  This  advice  was 
finally  rejected.  Congress,  he  wrote,  was  favorable,  "and 
moreover  the  President  would  not  reject  the  bill,"  but  many 
members  favorable  to  the  recharter  would  prefer  not  to  vote 
that  session.  Then,  too,  time  was  working  the  removal  of 
prejudices.4 

At  the  beginning  of  the  session,  December,  1831,  with  the^ 
charter  five  years  to  run,  we  are  confronted  with  the  mys- 

1  Josiah  Nichol  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  106. 

*  Biddle  to  Nichol,  ibid.,  107. 
1  Clay  to  Biddle,  ibid.,  110. 

*  Biddle  to  Clay,  ibid.,  115. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  207 

tery  of  the  injection  of  the  issue  at  that  time.  We  know, 
however,  that  the  strain  of  uncertainty  had  been  telling  on 
Biddle's  temper.  The  vultures  that  play  on  the  political 
necessities  of  corporations  were  beginning  to  swoop  down 
upon  him.  Duff  Green,  of  the  "National  Telegraph,"  had 
applied  for  a  $20,000  loan.1  And  mindful  of  the  importance 
of  propaganda,  he  had  already  decided  to  cultivate  the  press 
by  paying  it  well  for  the  publication  of  Bank  literature.2 
But  just  before  the  opening  of  the  congressional  session,  his 
negotiations  with  McLane  and  Livingston  of  the  Cabinet, 
both  friendly  to  the  Bank,  had  again  diverted  him  from  his 
disposition  to  fight.  In  October  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  had  sat  in  the  marble-front  building  in  Philadelphia  and 
told  him  of  confidential  communications  with  the  President. 
Anxious  to  keep  the  Bank  question  out  of  the  campaign, 
Jackson  had  reluctantly  consented,  on  the  importunities  of 
Livingston  and  McLane,  to  omit  all  references  to  the  Bank 
in  his  Message.  Biddle  feared  it  would  be  a  mistake.  Would 
it  not  be  better  merely  to  remind  Congress  of  his  previous 
comments,  and  leave  the  decision  "with  the  representatives 
of  the  people?"  The  fact  that  this  course  was  followed  is 
one  of  the  ironies  of  history.3  Hardly  had  this  decision  been 
reached  when  Clay  wrote  from  Ashland  urging  an  immediate 
application  for  a  new  charter.  This  was  a  sensational  rever 
sal  of  views.  Not  only  had  he  previously  advised  Biddle  dif 
ferently,  but  in  August,  1830,  he  had  taken  strong  grounds 
against  such  application  so  long  before  the  expiration  of  the 
existing  charter.  "I  am  not  prepared,"  he  said  then,  "to  say 
whether  the  charter  ought,  or  ought  not  to  be  renewed  on  the 
expiration  of  its  present  term.  The  question  is  premature. 
I  may  not  be  alive  to  form  any  opinion  on  it.  It  belongs  to 
posterity.  It  ought  to  be  indefinitely  postponed."  4  This 

»  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  124.  8  Ibid.,  126. 

8  See  Biddle's  memorandum  on  conference,  ibid.,  128. 
*  Speech  at  Cincinnati,  Clay's  Works,  vn,  396. 


208    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

speech  was  to  be  used  with  deadly  effect  by  Blair  in  the 
"  Globe  "  a  little  later. x  Even  then,  before  reaching  Washing 
ton,  Clay  had  determined  to  "turn  up"  the  Bank  charter  as 
an  issue. 

il*1    n 

WHEN  Congress  met,  Jackson  had  concluded  to  postpone  his 
"  fight  on  the  Bank.  Three  reasons  entered  into  the  decision 
—  the  friendliness  of  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  the 
institution,  the  realization  that  a  majority  in  Congress  fa 
vored  the  recharter,  and  the  fear  that  a  contest  during  the 
session  would  throw  the  tremendous  weight  of  the  Bank's 
influence  against  him  in  the  election /^jMost  of  his  advisers, 
including  Benton,  were  anxious  to  postpone  the  contest. 
Just  as  Biddle  had  thought  that  time  would  operate  to  the 
advantage  of  the  institution,  Benton  was  confident  that  it 
would  work  to  its  detriment,  and  he  wished  to  strengthen 
the  anti-Bank  lines  in  the  Senate  and  to  have  Van  Buren  in 
the  chair  when  the  contest  came.  McLane's  pronouncedly 
pro-Bank  report  had  deeply  embarrassed  the  President's 
supporters.  Creating  indignation  in  some  quarters,  conster 
nation  in  others,  Jackson  hastened  to  explain  it  away  in  a 
letter  to  Hamilton;  but  just  how  he  persuaded  himself  that 
the  views  of  the  report  did  "not  express  any  opposition  to 
those  entertained  by  myself,"  is  not  clear.2 

The  Bank  supporters  had  eagerly  seized  upon  the  McLane 
report,  and  Webb,  of  the  "New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer," 
now  deserting  the  Administration  on  the  Bank  question,  com 
mented  glowingly  upon  its  author  and  his  views.  That  this 
was  gall  and  wormwood  to  Jackson  and  his  intimates  is  evi 
dent  in  the  correspondence  which  passed  beween  them.  "The 

1  Commenting  on  it  in  the  Globe,  Jan.  14,  1832,  Blair  concludes:  "The  object  of 
the  Bank  and  politicians  who  build  their  hopes  upon  its  power  is  at  once  to  procure 
a  new  charter  from  a  Congress  which  has  not  been  elected  by  the  people  to  pass  upon 
that  question." 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  209 

article  .  .  .  was  calculated  if  Blair  had  replied,  to  do  McLane 
irreparable  injury  in  a  political  point  of  view,  because  it 
might  have  brought  him  and  the  President  into  seeming  col 
lision,"  wrote  Major  Lewis  to  Hamilton.1  And  all  this  time, 
McLane,  who  was  one  of  Hamilton's  correspondents,  was 
frankly  admitting  to  the  latter  that  he  had  "most  earnestly 
urged  Mr.  Clay  not  to  attempt  to  pass  a  Bank  bill  at  this 
session,  insisting  that,  if  deferred  to  the  next  session,  he  was 
satisfied  that  he  could,  by  that  time,  induce  Jackson  to 
approve  it";  but  that  Clay  had  "persisted  in  the  hope,  that 
if  the  President  approved  the  bill,  he  would  lose  the  support 
of  those  of  his  party  who  had  approved  his  opposition  to  the 
Bank,  and  a  vast  many  others  who  approved  of  the  State 
Bank  system."  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  "if  the  President  ve 
toed  the  bill,  he  would  lose  Pennsylvania  and  his  election."  2 
Thus  it  is  clear  enough  that  if  Jackson  could  have  determined, 
the  Bank  would  not  have  been  an  issue  in  1832. 

But  Clay  was  pressing  Biddle,  and  the  latter  devoted  the 
whole  of  December  to  feeling  his  way.  "I  think  they  [the 
Jackson  leaders]  are  desirous  to  have  the  Bank  question 
settled  by  a  renewal  before  the  next  presidential  canvass, 
with  any  modifications  to  free  the  President  from  the  charge 
of  an  entire  abandonment  of  his  original  opposition,"  wrote 
one  who  had  "seen  a  letter  from  the  Private  Secretary  of  the 
President  to  a  gentleman"  in  Louisville.3  "Last  night  I  had 
a  long  conversation  with  McLane,"  wrote  the  president  of 
the  Washington  branch,  "  and  I  am  authorized  by  him  to  say 
that  it  is  his  deliberate  opinion  and  advice  that  a  renewal  of 
the  charter  ought  not  to  be  pressed  during  the  present  session, 
in  which  I  concur  most  sincerely.  The  message  is  as  much  as 
you  could  expect.  It  shows  that  the  Chief  is  wavering.  If 
pressed  into  a  corner  immediately,  neither  McLane  nor  my 
self  will  answer  for  the  consequences."  4  From  another  cor- 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  235-36.  2  Ibid.,  234-35. 

8  Edward  Shippen  to  Biddle.  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle.  136.     «  Ibid.,  138. 


210    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

respondent  Biddle  learned  that  Barry,  Woodbury,  and  Taney 
were  hostile,  being  "under  the  influence  of  Blair,  Lewis,  Ken 
dall  &  Co.  who  rule  our  Chief  Magistrate";  that  Blair  had 
written  a  slashing  attack  upon  the  McLane  report,  which 
was  only  moderated  after  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had 
threatened  to  resign  if  the  original  were  published.  "I  fear  you 
will  yet  have  trouble  with  our  wise  governors,"  he  added.1 
A  Virginia  Congressman  urged  reasons  for  an  immediate 
application.  Jackson's  popularity  was  on  the  wane,  espe 
cially  in  Congress,  and  his  reelection  notwithstanding  being 
certain,  he  would  have  more  prestige  in  the  next  Congress. 
Calhoun,  still  Vice-President,  would  be  serviceable  among 
the  Bank's  enemies  in  the  South,  and  McDuffie,  a  follower  of 
Calhoun,  would  be  chairman  of  the  House  Committee  to  pass 
upon  the  application.2 

I  "My  own  belief,"  wrote  the  wily  Clay,  "is  that,  if  now 
cafled  upon,  he  [Jackson]  would  not  negative  the  bill,  but 
that  if  he  should  hereelected,  the  event  might  and  probably 
would  be  different /y  At  any  rate,  all  the  friends  of  the  Bank 
with  whom  Clay  had  conversed  "expect  the  application  to 
be  made."  3  In  corroboration  of  Clay's  views,  ffiebster  wrote 
that,  as  a  result  of  conversations,  he  had  been  strongly  con 
firmed  in  his  opinion  *lthat  it  is  expedient  for  the  Bank  to 
apply  for  a  renewal  of  the  Charter  without  delay |"  4 

Confused  by  such  a  medley  of  counsel,  Biddle  decided  to 
have  the  situation  studied  on  the  ground.  Thomas  Cad- 
walader,  a  trusted  Bank  agent,  could  be  depended  upon  to 
leave  party  considerations  out  of  his  survey,  and  on  Tuesday, 
the  20th  of  December,  this  servitor  took  up  his  quarters  at 
Barnard's  Hotel.5  The  next  day  found  him  closeted,  first 
with  McLane,  who  warned  him  of  a  certain  veto,  and  advised 

1  Robert  Gibbs  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  139. 

2  C.  F.  Mercer  to  Biddle,  ibid.,  140. 

3  Clay  to  Biddle,  ibid.,  142. 

4  Webster  to  Biddle,  ibid.,  145. 

6  Site  of  the  Wfflard.  14th  Street  and  the  Avenue. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  211 

him  to  canvass  Congress  to  ascertain  whether  the  Bank 
could  muster  the  two  thirds  necessary  to  override  it.  A  pre 
liminary  survey  that  day  was  discouraging,  and  the  evening 
found  the  agent  again  with  McLane,  who  reiterated  his  plea 
for  a  postponement  until  after  the  election.  On  Thursday 
the  agent  met  McDuffie,  who  urged  an  immediate  applica 
tion  until  "staggered"  by  what  Cadwalader  had  learned  of 
the  probable  vote  to  override  the  veto.  He  then  advised  the 
Bank  to  feel  its  way  cautiously.  Friday  found  him  dining 
with  Senator  Smith,  a  Democrat,  who  opposed  the  agitation 
of  the  question  that  session,  since  it  would  mean  a  Jackson 
and  anti-Jackson  vote,  and  lose  the  Bank  ten  votes  it  could 
depend  upon  the  next  year.1  It  did  not  take  the  sagacious 
agent  long  to  sense  the  selfish  political  motives  of  the  Clay 
leaders.  "It  is  evident,"  he  wrote  Biddle,  "that  W.'s  [Web 
ster's]  opinions  are  guided,  in  some  degree,  by  party  feelings 
—  as  seems  to  be  the  case  with  most  of  the  Clay  men."  In 
John  Quincy  Adams  he  found  a  cooler  head,  and  one  in  whose 
judgment  he  had  more  confidence.  Where  Webster  had  urged 
that  the  application  be  made  if  "a  bare  majority  in  Congress 
could  be  mustered,"  Adams  favored  postponement  "unless 
a  strong  vote  can  be  ascertained."  But,  thinking  the  situa 
tion  over  on  Christmas  Day,  and  after  another  and  more 
favorable  canvass  of  the  available  votes,  he  began  to  lean 
toward  the  Clay  opinion.  In  the  case  of  a  postponement 
some  of  the  Bank's  friends  would  be  "hike- warm,"  Webster 
would  be  "cold  or  perhaps  hostile,"  if  the  Bank  bent  to  the 
Government  influence.  After  another  conference  with  Mc 
Lane,  he  thought  he  would  advise  the  Bank  to  start  the 
memorial.  In  this  disposition  he  was  confirmed  by  a  visit  on 
Christmas  night  from  the  brother  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
a  Whig  and  a  follower  of  Clay,  who  brought  the  solemn  assur- 

1  These  ten,  Dickerson  of  New  Jersey,  Dallas  and  Wilkins  of  Pennsylvania,  Smith 
of  Maryland,  Mangum  of  North  Carolina,  Forsyth  of  Georgia,  Poindexter  of  Mis 
sissippi,  Kane  and  Robinson  of  Illinois,  and  Hendricks  of  Indiana. 


PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ance  that  Livingston,  McLane,  and  Cass  would  prevent  the 
veto.  The  outcome  of  it  all  was  that  Cadwalader  was  won 
over  to  the  Whig  plan.1  The  moment  the  agent  returned  to 
Philadelphia,  McLane,  assuming  the  chilly  dignity  of  resent 
ment,  wrote  Biddle,  restating  his  position  and  curtly  declar 
ing  that  he  could  not,  "as  one  of  the  constitutional  advisers 
of  the  President,"  object  to  the  exercise  of  his  veto  power.2 
But  three  days  later,  Webster,  in  a  reassuring  note,  wrote 
that  the  decision  to  present  the  memorial  was  "exactly 
right."  3 

The  Whig  politicians  were  determined  that  the  Bank  should 
be  dragged  into  politics,  and  they  had  their  way.  The  desire 
of  Biddle  to  accept  compromises  proposed  by  McLane  were 
ruthlessly  brushed  aside  by  his  political  friends.  The  story 
of  the  meeting  at  which  Clay  forced  the  issue  is  significant 
and  dramatic.  McLane  had  summoned  Biddle  to  Washing 
ton  and  submitted  a  proposition  for  a  recharter  which,  he 
contended,  would  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  President. 
After  returning  to  Philadelphia  and  consulting  with  his  direc 
tors,  an  agreement  was  reached  to  accept  the  compromise. 
Hurrying  back  to  the  capital,  Biddle  conceived  the  unhappy 
notion  of  first  consulting  with  the  political  friends  of  the 
institution  in  the  Congress,  before  calling  upon  McLane. 
Fatal  error! 

An  historical  political  conference  was  called.  There,  of 
course,  was  ^chola8  Biddle,  financial  American  autocrat 
of  his  time,  elegant,  suave,  polisEed  to  scintillation,  a  lover  of 
literature,  a  brilliant  conversationalist,  with  a  graceful  epis 
tolary  style,  which  was  as  dangerous  to  him  as  loquacity  to 
a  diplomat.  He  had  been  schooled  in  tact  while  serving  as 
the  Secretary  of  the  American  Legation  at  Paris  under 
Monroe.  Clever,  unscrupulous,  practicing  diplomacy  where 

1  For  Cadwalader's  reports  see  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  146-61. 

2  McLane  to  Biddle,  ibid,  165. 
9  Webster  to  Biddle,  ibid.,  169. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  213 

straightforward  methods  would  have  served  better,  he  had 
assiduously  cultivated  public  men  until  he  had  created  a  bi 
partisan  Bank  party  in  both  branches  of  the  Congress.  In 
his  Philadelphia  home  the  great  men  of  his  day  partook 
of  his  hospitality.  Before  Jackson  reached  the  Presidency, 
the  president  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  in  better 
position  to  foresee  the  proceedings  of  Congress  than  the 
responsible  Chief  Executive  of  the  people.  Instead  of  con 
cealing  his  power,  he  loved  to  flaunt  it  in  the  face  of  authority. 
"Emperor  Nicholas"  smiled  and  bowed  blandly  to  his  title. 

And  there,  of  course,  was  Clay,  leader  of  his  party,  the 
greatest  genius  in  the  Senate,  seemingly  destined  to  the 
presidential  dignity,  and  for  years  one  of  Biddle's  most 
trusted  friends  and  advisers.  He  had  been  on  the  pay-roll  of 
the  Bank  as  its  counsel  in  Kentucky  and  Ohio. 

There,  too,  was  John  Sergeant,  there  by  right  as  chief 
counsel  of  the  Bank,  but  there,  too,  by  right,  as  Clay's  run 
ning  mate  in  the  election,  for  he  had  been  nominated  for 
Vice-President. 

And  there  sat  Webster,  upon  whose  eloquence  and  wisdom 
the  Bank  had  learned  to  lean.  But  he  sat  there  that  day, 
less  as  the  champion  of  the  Bank  than  as  a  partisan  supporter 
of  Clay  and  Sergeant. 

The  compromise  proposition  was  submitted  by  Biddle, 
and,  after  some  pretense  at  discussion,  it  was  vetoed  by  Clay 
and  Webster,  on  the*  ground  that  "the  question  of  a  re- 
charter  had  progressed  too  far  to  render  any  compromise  or 
change  of  front  expedient."  1 

A  little  nonplussed,  Biddle  and  Sergeant  retired  for  further 
consideration,  and  returned  to  the  conference  with  the  poli 
ticians  in  the  evening  still  convinced  that  the  McLane  com 
promise  should  be  accepted.  And  it  was  then  that  Clay  and 
Webster,  by  assuming  an  injured  air,  literally  blackmailed 
their  Philadelphia  friends  into  the  acceptance  of  their  plan, 

1  Weed's  Autobiography,  I,  373. 


214    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

asserting  their  ability  at  the  time  to  carry  the  charter  through 
in  the  face  of  a  veto,  but  significantly  adding  that  they 
would  no  longer  be  responsible  for  anything  that  might  occur 
"  if  in  the  heat  of  the  contest  the  Bank,  abandoning  vits  re 
liable  friends,  should  strike  hands  with  its  foe."  x/Thus  it  was 
neither  Jackson  nor  Biddle  that  forced  the  Bank  into  the 
campaign  of  1832,  but  Henry  Clay,  thinking  solely  in  terms 
of  politics  and  self-interest,  as  he  saw  them/' 

m 

THE  winter  roads  between  Philadelphia  and  Washington 
were  ribbons  of  mud,  cut  across  by  frozen  streams.  A  stage 
coach,  bumping  and  splattering  through  the  mire,  struck  an 
obstruction,  turned  over,  and  General  Cadwalader,  with  the 
Bank's  memorial  in  his  pocket,  arose  from  the  wreck  with  an 
injured  shoulder  that  was  to  delay  its  presentation  to  the 
Congress.  But  three  weeks  after  the  conference  in  Washing 
ton  it  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  its  friends. 

In  the  Senate  it  was  presented  by  a  Democrat,  George  M. 
Dallas  of  Pennsylvania,  acting  under  strict  instructions  from 
the  Legislature  of  his  State,  but  very  much  against  his  per 
sonal  judgment.  In  the  House  it  was  entrusted  to  one  who 
could  act  with  greater  spirit,  because  of  venomous  hostility 
to  Jackson  —  the  vehement  and  picturesque  McDuffie. 

On  the  motion  of  Dallas,  a  select  committee  was  chosen  in 
the  Senate  to  consider  the  memorial,  composed  of  four  friends 
of  the  Bank  and  one  enemy.  In  the  House,  the  fighting  be 
gan  at  once.  Instead  of  requesting  a  select  committee,  Mc- 
Duffie  asked  a  reference  to  his  own  Committee  on  Ways  and 
Means  —  packed  with  friends  of  the  Bank.  This  was  good 
tactics.  Andrew  Stevenson,  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  a 
Jacksonian  Democrat,  could  clearly  not  be  entrusted  with 
the  selection  of  a  special  committee.  An  animated  debate 
followed,  and  the  McDuffie  motion  prevailed  by  a  narrow 

1  Weed's  Autobiography,  i.  373. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  215 

margin  of  ten  votes.  But  that  was  not  to  be  the  end  of  the 
matter  —  not  so  long  as  there  was  a  Jackson  in  the  White 
House,  a  Benton  in  the  Senate,  and  a  Kendall  on  the  side  lines. 
The  plan  of  parliamentary  warfare  was  devised  by  the  mas 
ter  parliamentarian  from  Missouri.  It  contemplated  numer 
ous  amendments  and  elaborate  discussion  in  the  Senate;  and 
in  the  House,  an  investigation  into  the  condition  and  methods 
of  the  Bank.  Benton  immediately  furnished  a  new  member 
of  the  House,  Clayton,  with  an  indictment  in  many  counts, 
some  justifiable,  and  others  having  nothing  more  substantial 
than  gossip  behind  them.  But  even  these  served.  The  de 
bate  was  brisk.  James  K.  Polk  led  for  the  Administration 
in  the  strongest  speech  of  his  congressional  career;  and  Mc- 
Duffie,  sincerely  believing  in  the  purity  of  the  Bank,  and 
fearing  the  effect  of  opposition  to  an  investigation,  making 
only  a  perfunctory  objection.  At  the  time  it  was  presented, 
Biddle  was  relying  for  information  on  Charles  Jared  Ingersoll, 
who  had  been  sent  to  Washington  in  an  attempt  to  con 
ciliate  Jackson,  and  was  in  constant  communication  with 
Livingston  and  McLane.  It  is  significant  of  Jackson's  meth 
ods  that  his  Secretary  of  State  authorized  Ingersoll  to  in 
form  Biddle  that  the  President  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
resolution,  wished  to  end  the  matter  that  session,  and  would 
sign  a  rechartering  measure  if  satisfactorily  framed.1  But 
the  easy  capitulation  of  McDuffie  in  permitting  the  passage 
of  the  resolution  caused  poignant  distress  in  Bank  circles. 
Ingersoll  concluded  that  the  Carolinian  preferred  to  have  the 
tariff  debate  precede  that  on  the  Bank.2 

Thus  the  investigation  was  ordered.  The  apologists  for  the 
Bank  among  historians  persist  in  the  fallacy  that  its  enemies 
had  no  expectation  of  finding  anything  wrong.  This  is  a  re 
markable  conclusion.  Benton  thoroughly  expected  it.  The 
son  of  Alexander  Hamilton  had  no  doubt  of  it.3  Jackson 

1  Ingersoll  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  187.  2  Ibid..  188. 

8  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  243. 


I 


216    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

was  serious  about  it.  "The  affairs  of  the  Bank  I  antici 
pated  to  be  precisely  such  as  you  have  intimated,"  he  wrote 
to  Hamilton.  "When  fully  disclosed,  and  the  branches 
looked  into  it  will  be  seen  that  its  corrupting  influence  has 
been  extended  everywhere  that  could  add  to  its  strength 
and  secure  its  recharter.  I  wish  it  may  not  have  extended 
its  influence  over  too  many  members  of  Congress."  1 

The  committee  of  investigation  submitted  three  reports. 
The  majority  report  charged  usury,  the  issuance  of  branch 
bank  notes  as  currency,  the  selling  of  coin,  loans  to  editors, 
brokers,  and  members  of  Congress,  donations  to  roads  and 
canals,  the  construction  of  houses  to  rent  and  sell,  and  the 
sale  of  stock  obtained  from  the  Government  through  special 
acts  of  Congress.  The  minority  report,  and  that  of  Adams, 
who  reported  separately,  were  laudatory  of  the  institution. 
Nothing  was  proved.  Campaign  material  was  furnished,  and 
nothing  more. 

In  the  midst  of  the  fighting,  on  May  30th,  Nicholas  Biddle 
moved  upon  the  capital  and  took  personal  charge  of  his  forces. 
He  entertained  at  dinners  at  Barnard's.  He  daily  repaired 
to  the  Capitol  to  meet  emergencies.  He  conferred  freely*  with 
Livingston  and  McLane,  hoping  through  them  to  conciliate 
the  President.  So  positive  was  he  that  the  investigation, 
by  proving  nothing,  had  disarmed  hostility,  that  he  wrote 
expansively,  on  his  arrival,  of  his  willingness  to  consider 
with  Jackson  such  modifications  as  would  satisfy  the  Pres 
ident.2  In  less  than  a  week  he  was  disillusioned  of  the  idea  of 
an  easy  triumph.  "It  has  been  a  week  of  hard  work,  anxiety 
and  alternating  hopes  and  fears,"  he  wrote  Cadwalader,  "but 
I  think  that  we  may  now  rely  with  confidence  in  a  favorable 
result."  3  All  through  June  the  battle  raged  in  the  Senate, 
and  it  was  not  until  July  3d  that  the  "Emperor  Nicholas" 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  244. 

8  Biddle  to  Cadwalader.  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  191. 

» Ibid.,  192. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  217 

was  able  to  write  of  the  passage  of  the  bill  by  that  body,   i 
and  to  "congratulate  our  friends  most  cordially  upon  their  / 
most  satisfactory  results."   The  victory  was  achieved  by  a  I 
vote  of  28  to  20,  with  Dallas,  Wilkins,  and  Poindexter,  among  I 
the  Democrats,  voting  for  the  bill.   In  the  House,  the  Bank  | 
won  by  a  vote  of  106  to  84. 

"Now  for  the  President,"  wrote  Biddle.  "My  belief  is 
that  thePresijjppt  ™\l  "*&$  ttljE  kill,  though  that  is  not  gen 
erally  "Eiowiior  believed."  *  And  Clay  at  the  same  time 
wrote:  "The  Bank  bill  will,  I  believe,  pass  the  House,  and  if 
Jackson  is  to  be  believed,  he  will  veto  it."  2  Thus,  at  this 
stage,  it  is  evident  that  Biddle  had  reconciled  himself  to 
Clay's  plan  of  making  the  fate  of  the  Bank  the  issue  in  the 
campaign.  Among  Jackson's  friends  there  was  no  doubt  as 
to  his  intentions.  Both  McLane  and  Livingston  had  warned 
the  banker.  Three  months  before,  Hamilton  had  written  a 
friend  that,  in  the  event  of  its  passage,  Jackson  would 
promptly  veto  the  measure.  "He  is  open  and  determined 
upon  this  point.  I  conferred  with  him  yesterday  upon  the 
subject.  I  told  him  what  the  Opposition  avowed  as  their 
motive  for  pushing  the  bill  at  this  session.  He  replied:  *I 
will  prove  to  them  that  I  never  flinch;  that  they  were  mis 
taken  when  they  expected  to  act  upon  me  with  such  consid 
erations.  ' "  3 

IV 

WHEN  the  bill  reached  Jackson,  he  knew  that  he  could  not 
count  on  the  unanimous  support  of  his  Cabinet  on  the  veto. 
Livingston,  McLane,  and  Cass  were  frankly  antagonistic  to 
his  purpose,  Woodbury  was  uncertain,  while  Barry,  always 
acquiescing  in  his  chief's  policies,  scarcely  counted.  Among 
all  the  men  who  sat  about  the  table  in  the  Cabinet  room,  the 
only  one  who  heartily  sympathized  with  his  intent  was  Roger 

1  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  192.  2  Clay's  Works,  iv,  340. 

3  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  243. 


218    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Taney.  In  February,  Ingersoll  had  found  him  against  the 
Bank,  but  Livingston  then  "hoped  to  convert  him";  and 
while  the  Bank  representative  had  "found  him  just  now 
closeted  with  Kendall,"  this  was  so  far  from  discouraging 
him  that  he  had  not  even  despaired  of  Kendall  and  Lewis, 
and  felt  that  he  had  established  "a  good  understanding" 
with  Blair  of  the  "Globe."  1  On  the  day  the  bill  reached  the 
White  House,  Taney  was  absent  from  Washington,  but  he 
had  gone  over  the  ground  thoroughly  with  the  President, 
and  had  written  him  a  letter  setting  forth  reasons  why,  in 
the  event  of  the  bill's  passage,  it  should  be  vetoed. 

On  the  day  of  its  passage,  Martin  Van  Buren  landed  in 
New  York,  and  the  following  morning  he  started  for  the 
capital.  It  was  midnight  when  he  reached  Washington,  but, 
in  compliance  with  a  letter  from  Jackson,  which  awaited 
him  on  landing,  he  proceeded  through  the  dark  streets  to  the 
White  House  where  he  was  instantly  ushered  into  the  Presi 
dent's  room.  The  grim  old  fighter  was  sitting  up  in  bed, 
supported  by  pillows,  his  wretched  health  clearly  denoted  in 
his  countenance.2  But  there  was  the  passion  of  battle  in  his 
blood,  and  it  flashed  in  his  eye  as  he  eagerly  grasped  the  hand 
of  his  favorite,  and,  retaining  it,  poured  forth  the  story  of  the 
Bank  Bill,  and  expressed  his  satisfaction  on  the  arrival  of  a 
faithful  friend  at  such  a  critical  juncture.  When  Van  Buren 
expressed  the  hope  that  he  would  not  hesitate  to  veto  the 
bill,  Jackson's  face  beamed.  "It  is  the  only  way,"  said  the 
Red  Fox,  "you  can  discharge  the  great  duty  you  owe  to  the 
country  and  yourself."  3  By  Van  Buren,  the  old  man's  grat 
ification  was  easily  understood,  for  he  knew  of  the  desertion 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  Cabinet. 

There  is  some  confusion  among  those  who  should  have 
known  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  Veto  Message.  In  this 
instance  Hamilton  was  not  called  in,  albeit  sympathizing 

1  Ingersoll  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  183. 

2  Van  Buren's  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  314.  8  Ibid. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  219 

heartily  with  Jackson's  purpose.  According  to  one  of  his 
biographers  l  the  ideas  were  contributed  by  Livingston, 
Benton,  Taney,  and  Jackson,  and  the  phrasing  was  by 
Amos  Kendall,  Blair,  and  Lewis.  In  view  of  Livingston's 
negotiations  with  Biddle,  we  may  safely  accept  his  denial  of 
having  had  any  part  in  the  Message.  It  was  inevitable  that 
Benton  should  have  been  consulted.  And  it  is  known  that 
Taney  was  summoned  back  to  Washington  to  assist  in  the 
framing.  During  the  entire  time  it  was  being  written,  Van 
Buren,  who  remained  at  the  capital,  with  the  document  open 
to  his  inspection,  did  not  have  any  "direct  agency  in  its  con 
struction."  2  His  enemies  at  the  time,  however,  insisted  that 
he  was  a  party  to  the  phrasing.  "Mr.  Van  Buren  arrived  at 
the  President's  on  Sunday,"  a  correspondent  in  Washington 
wrote  Biddle,  "and  to-day  the  President  sent  to  the  Senate 
his  veto  on  the  Bank  Bill."  3  That  Major  Lewis  and  Blair 
were  called  in  to  assist  in  the  actual  wording  is  quite  proba 
ble,  but  it  may  be  set  ^^wn  as  p^sitivfl  thflt  the  rTf*at^r  part 
of  the  f^fv*TTmpnf'  fl?  jffr  ?*p>fl|j'i  pd  f-hp  Sffinfiitip  was  the  product  of 
the  pen  of  the  mysterious  recluse,  Amos  Kendall. 

That  such  a  Message  from  such  a  pen  at  such  a  time  should 
be  strikingly  strong  and  couched  in  such  language  as  to 
appeal  to  the  electorate  of  the  Nation  was  inevitable.  It  has 
been  fashionable  to  describe  it  as  demagogic  because  of  its 
appeal  to  the  masses  and  its  protest  against  the  conversion 
by  the  rich  of  governmental  agencies  to  their  personal  ends, 
and  because  of  its  objections,  to  the  foreign  stockholders  in 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  It  was,  of  course,  a  campaign 
document  —  intended  as  such.  Jackson  understood  perV 
fectly  that  the  presentation  of  the  memorial  for  a  recharter 
four  years  before  the  expiration  of  the  existing  charter,  and 
in  the  year  of  the  presidential  election,  was  a  campaign  move 
on  the  part  of  Clay.  He  knew  that  Clay  was  appealing  to 

1  Buell.  2  Van  Buren's  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  218. 

3  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  193. 


220    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

wealth  and  power  —  he  appealed  to  the  people.    And  his 
appeal  was  to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

n  this  stirring  appeal  to  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  as 
well  as  to  their  interests,  as  the  Jacksonians  saw  it,  there  was 
but  one  real  blunder,  and  that  in  phrasing.  In  discussing 
the  constitutionality  of  the  Bank,  Jackson  said:  "Each 
officer  who  takes  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution, 
swears  that  he  will  support  it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not 
as  it  is  understood  by  others."  Upon  this  was  to  be  predi 
cated  the  assertion  that  Jackson  had  announced  a  philoso 
phy  of  chaos,  with  each  petty  officer  passing  upon  the  con 
stitutionality  of  laws,  and  irrespective  and  in  contempt  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  The  more  conservative  friends  of  the 
President  interpreted  the  words  employed  as  meaning  "that 
in  giving  or  withholding  his  assent  to  the  bill  for  the  recharter 
of  the  Bank,  it  was  his  right  and  duty  to  decide  the  question 
of  its  constitutionality  for  himself,  uninfluenced  by  any 
opinion  or  judgment  which  the  Supreme  Court  had  pro 
nounced  upon  that  point,  farther  than  his  judgment  was 
satisfied  by  the  reasons  it  had  given  for  its  decision."  l  But 
there  were  other  expressions  in  the  Message  that  must  have 
appeared  as  little  short  of  appeals  to  anarchy  to  the  more 
conservative  element.  "It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  rich  and 
powerful  too  often  bend  the  acts  of  Government  to  their  self 
ish  purposes."  "Every  man  is  equally  entitled  to  protection 
by  law;  but  when  the  laws  undertake  to  add  to  these  nat 
ural  and  just  advantages  artif^ial  distinctions,  to  grant  titles, 
gratuities,  and  exclusive  privileges,  to  make  the  rich  richer 
and  the  powerful  more  potent,  the  humble  members  of  soci 
ety  —  the  farmers,  mechanics  and  laborers  —  who  have 
neither  the  time  nor  the  means  of  securing  like  favors  to 
themselves,  have  a  right  to  complain  of  the  injustice  of  their 
government."  "There  are  no  necessary  evils  in  government. 
Its  evils  exist  only  in  its  abuses."  "Many  of  our  rich  have 

1  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  313-14,  and  317. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE 

not  been  content  with  equal  protection  and  equal  benefits, 
but  have  besought  us  to  make  them  richer  by  act  of  Congress. ** 

Here  was  a  Message  striking  an  entirely  new  note  in  Amer 
ican  politics,  and  not  without  justification.  So  completely 
had  the  country  been  under  the  domination  of  the  powerful, 
politically,  financially,  and  socially,  previous  to  the  Jackson 
regime,  that  the  Message  was  actually  hailed  with  delight  by 
the  followers  of  Clay.  <S? 

"As  to  the  veto  message,"  wrote  Biddle,  "I  am  delighted 
with  it.  It  has  all  the  fury  of  the  unchained  panther,  biting 
the  bars  of  his  cage.  It  is  really  a  manifesto  of  anarchy,  such 
as  Marat  and  Robespierre  might  have  issued  to  the  mob  of 
the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine;  and  my  hope  is  that  it  will  con 
tribute  to  relieve  the  country  from  the  domination  of  these 
miserable  people."  1  The  personal  organ  of  Clay,  the  "Lex 
ington  Observer,"  commented  thus:  "It  is  a  mixture  <of  the 
Demagogue  and  the  Despot,  of  depravity,  desperation  and 
feelings  of  malice  and  vengeance  partially  smothered.  It  is 
the  type  of  the  detested  hypocrite,  who,  cornered  at  all  points, 
still  cannot  abandon  entirely  his  habitual  artifice,  but  at 
length,  finding  himself  stripped  naked,  in  a  tone  of  defiance 
says:  'I  am  a  villain;  now  do  your  worst  and  so  will  I.'"  2 
So  little  did  the  Bank  and  its  supporters  understand  the\ 
psychology  of  the  "mob"  that  it  published  and  circulated^ 
thirty  thousand  copies  of  the  Message  at  its  own  expense !  +) 

|But  if  the  Whigs  were  pleased  with  its  tone,  the  Democrats 
were  delighted.  Either  Blair  or  Kendall  in  a  fulsome  editorial 
in  the  "Globe"  found  it  "difficult  to  describe  in  adequate 
language  the  sublimity  of  the  moral  spectacle  now  presented 
to  the  American  people  in  the  person  of  Andrew  Jackson," 
and  that  "in  this  act  the  glories  of  the  battle-field  are 
eclipsed  —  it  is  the  crowning  chaplet  of  an  immortal  fame."  3 

J 

1  Corra?pon(&nce  of  WicfoJcw  Biddle,  196. 

2  Balir  reproduced  this  in  the  Globe  of  July  26th  in  the  midst  of  the  campaign. 

3  Washington  Globe,  July  14.  1832. 


222    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

jAnd  Hugh  Lawson  White,  himself  a  banker,  a  statesman,  a 
I  man  of  property,  and  a  patriot  of  impeccable  purity,  de- 
jclared  that  it  would  give  to  Jackson  a  more  enduring  fame 

and  deeper  gratitude  than  the  greatest  of  his  victories  in  the 

field. 

Both  parties  were  satisfiejjBdth  the  Message. 


NEVER  in  the  history  of  the  Republic  had  feeling  been 
aroused  to  a  more^  dangerous  pitch  than  during  the  period 
of  the  Bank  fight.  '  Senator  White,  a  calm,  well-poised  man 
of  years,  was  not  at  all  certain  that  even  he  could  escape  a 
personal  encounter.  "Everything  here  is  in  a  bustle,"  he 
wrote.  "Nothing  out  of  which  mischief  can  be  made  is 
suffered  to  slumber.  Ill  blood  is  produced  by  almost  every 
event;  and  a  great  disposition  is  manifested  by  some  to 
appeal  to  the  trial  of  battle.  .  .  .  No  man  can  tell  when 
or  with  whom  he  is  to  be  involved.  I  will  do  all  that  a  pru 
dent  man  ought  to  do  to  avoid  difficulties,  but  should  it  be 
my  lot  to  have  them  forced  upon  me,  my  reliance  is  that 
Providence  will  guide  me  through  them  safely."  1 
,/  The  debate  in  the  Senate  following  the  Veto  Message  was 
f  significant.  The  great  Field  Marshals  of  the  Bank,  who  had 
maintained  silence  until  now,  appeared  upon  the  scene  with 
impassioned  speeches  of  denunciation  and  solemn  warning. 
The  import  of  the  speeches  of  Clay  and  Webster  could  not 
have  been  clearer.  They  were  designed  to  intimidate  the 
electorate  into  voting  against  Jackson  by  the  most  gloomy 
predictions  of  panic  and  distress.  Webster,  who  spoke  first 
and  made  by  long  odds  the  most  powerful  presentation 
against  the  Veto,  dwelt  with  funereal  melancholy  upon  thev 
President's  determination  to  overturn  American  institution^^ 
basing  this  absurd  theory  on  the  unhappy  sentence  referred 
to  above. 

1  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  80. 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE 

But  the  one  note  he  struck  in  the  beginning  and  pounded 
to  the  end  was  that  of  intimidation.  The  country  was  pros 
perous  and  yet  there  was  "an  unaccountable  disposition  to 
destroy  the  most  useful  and  most  approved  institutions  of  the 
Government."  Unless  Jackson  should  be  defeated  at  the 
polls  the  Bank  would  fall,  and  in  its  fall  pull  down  the  pillars\ 
of  prosperity  and  involve  all  in  a  common  ruin.  The  Bank ) 
would  have  to  call  in  its  debts  at  once.  The  distress  would 
be  especially  acute  in  the  States  on  the  Mississippi  and  its 
wraters  —  where  votes  were  needed  for  Clay.  There  thirty 
millions  of  the  Bank's  money  was  out  on  loans  and  discounts, 
and  how  could  this  be  immediately  collected  without  untold 
suffering  and  misery?  The  great  orator,  however,  evidently 
afraid  that  his  hints  at  the  election  had  been  too  subtle,  soon 
threw  off  the  mask  boldly. 

"An  important  election  is  at  hand,"  he  said,  "and  the 
renewal  of  the  Bank  Charter  is  a  pending  object  of  great  in 
terest,  and  some  excitement.  Should  not  the  opinions  of 
men  high  in  office  and  candidates  for  reelection  be  known  on 
this  as  on  other  important  questions?  "  And  thence  he  argued 
that  the  life  of  the  Republic,  the  preservation  of  the  Consti 
tution,  the  salvation  of  society  from  anarchy,  and  the  pros 
perity  of  the  people,  were  all  inseparably  interwoven  with 
the  National  Bank  and  the  candidacy  of  Clayr  "No  old 
school  Federalist,"  says  Van  Buren,  "who  had  grown  to 
man's  estate  with  views  and  opinions  in  regard  to  the  char 
acter  of  the  people  which  that  faith  seldom  failed  to  inspire, 
could  doubt  the  efficacy  of  such  an  exposition  in  turning  the 
minds  of  all  classes  of  the  community  in  the  desired  direc 
tion."  1 

If  the  Veto  was  satisfactory  to  the  Whigs  —  to  the  sur 
prise  of  the  Democrats  —  Webster's  avowed  purpose  to 
make  it  the  issue  in  the  campaign  was  satisfactory  to  the 
Democrats  —  to  the  equal  astonishment  of  the  Whigs.  When 

1  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  321. 


224    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  great  New  England  orator  sat  down,  Hugh  Lawson  White 
of  Tennessee,  a  banker,  fluent,  logical,  and  forceful,  lost  no 
time  in  accepting  Webster's  "issue." 

"I  thank  the  Senator,"  he  said,  "for  the  candid  avowal, 
that  unless  the  President  will  sign  such  a  charter  as  will  suit 
the  directors,  they  intend  to  interfere  in  the  election,  and  en 
deavor  to  displace  him.  With  the  same  candor  I  state,  that 
after  this  declaration,  this  charter  shall  never  be  renewed 
with  my  consent.  .  .  .  Sir,  if  under  these  circumstances  the 
charter  is  renewed,  the  elective  franchise  is  destroyed,  and 
the  liberties  and  prosperity  of  the  people  are  delivered  over 
to  this  moneyed  institution,  to  be  disposed  of  at  their  dis 
cretion.  Against  this  I  enter  my  solemn  protest." 

Even  the  most  ardent  supporters  of  Clay  will  hardly  point 
to  his  speech  on  the  Veto  as  evidence  of  his  power.  Com 
pared  with  Webster's  or  White's,  it  was  mere  froth,  lacking 
in  both  substance  and  style,  and  only  notable  in  its  insist 
ence  that  the  failure  of  the  recharter  would  be  fatal  to  the 
West,  as  the  continuance  of  Jackson  in  office  would  be  sub 
versive  of  all  government. 

^t(£j:eply  of  Ben  ton  was  characteristic  in  its  slashing 
style,  its  exhaustive  appeal  to  facts  and  figures,  and  chiefly 
important  as  a  campaign  argument  in  its  elaborate  discussion 
of  the  relations  of  the  Bank  with  the  Western  States.  Not  to 
be  outdone  in  dire  predictions,  he  insisted  that  the  triumph 
of  the  Bank  would  mean  the  end  of  free  institutions;  that 
"no  individual  could  stand  in  the  States  against  the  power  of 
the  Bank,  and  the  Bank  flushed  with  the  victory  over  the 
conqueror  of  the  conquerors  of  Bonaparte";  that  "an  oli 
garchy  would  be  immediately  established,  and  that  oligarchy, 
in  a  few  generations,  would  ripen  into  a  monarchy X  He  re 
alized  that  all  nations  must  ultimately  perish.  "Kome  had 
her  Pharsalia  and  Greece  her  Chseronea,  and  this  Republic, 
more  illustrious  in  her  birth,  was  entitled  to  a  death  as  glori 
ous  as  theirs."  He  would  not  have  her  "die  by  poison" 


CLAY  FINDS  HIS  ISSUE  225 

or  "perish  in  corruption,"  but  "a  field  of  arms  and  glory 
should  be  her  end." 

And  he,  too,  eagerly  accepted  the  challenge  of  Webster: 
"Why  debate  the  Bank  question  now,  and  not  before?"  he 
asked.  "With  what  object  do  they  speak?  Sir,  this  post  facto 
debate  is  not  for  the  Senate,  nor  the  President,  nor  to  alter 
the  fate  of  the  Bank  Bill.  It  is  to  arouse  the  officers  of  the 
Bank  —  to  direct  the  efforts  of  its  mercenaries  in  their  de 
signs  upon  the  people  —  to  bring  out  its  streams  of  corrupt 
ing  influence,  by  inspiring  hope,  and  to  embody  all  its  recruits 
at  the  polls  to  vote  against  Jackson.  Without  an  avowal  we 
would  all  know  this;  but  we  have  not  been  left  without  an 
avowal.  The  Senator  from  Massachusetts  commenced  his 
speech  by  showing  that  Jackson  must  be  put  down;  that  he 
stood  as  an  impassable  barrier  between  the  Bank  and  a  new 
charter;  and  that  the  road  to  success  was  through  the  ballot 
boxes  at  the  presidential  election.  The  object  of  this  debate  is 
then  known,  confessed,  declared,  avowed;  the  Bank  is  in  the 
field;  enlisted  for  the  war;  a  battering  ram  —  the  catapulta, 
not  of  the  Romans  but  of  the  National  Republicans  [Whigs]; 
not  to  beat  down  the  walls  of  hostile  cities,  but  to  beat  down 
the  citadel  of  American  liberty;  to  batter  down  the  rights  of 
the  people;  to  destroy  a  patriot  and  a  hero;  to  command  the 
elections  and  to  elect  a  Bank  President." 

soured  the  keynotes  of  the  two  par- 


fi'ps  117  thAflpprn^}iingrjf^rr|pfl.|gn  ^  ft*  rmmfrv* 

The  debate  was  not  to  end  without  its  serio-comedy. 
Benton  had  criticized  Clay  for  lack  of  decent  courtesy  to  the 
President,  and  when  he  resumed  his  seat,  Clay  arose  to  ques 
tion  the  Missourian's  qualification  to  pass  on  decent  cour 
tesy,  and  to  revive  the  story  that  Benton  had  once  said  that 
should  Jackson  ever  reach  the  Presidency,  Senators  "would 
have  to  legislate  with  pistols  and  dirks."  Benton  excitedly 
denied  it.  The  lie  was  passed.  The  angry  statesmen  were 
called  to  order  and  forced  to  apologize  to  the  Senate,  and 


226    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

thus  the  Whig  nominee  for  the  Presidency  closed  the  debate 
in  a  none  too  dignified  fashion. 

^The  necessary  two  thirds  to  override  the  veto  could  not  be 
mustered,  and  Clay  left  Washington  on  the  adjournment  of 
7  Congress,  July  16th,  happy  in  the  knowledge  that  "some 
thing  had  turned  up "  that  would  force  the  Bank  and  all  its 
resources  and  influence  to  battle  with  a  personal  motive  for 
his  election. 

And  Jackson  and  his  friends  were  jubilant. 

Thus  ended  one  of  the  longest  and  most  bitter  sessions  the 
American  Congress  had  ever  known,  "fierce  in  the  beginning, 
and  becoming  more  furious  to  the  end." 

1  Beaton's  Thirty  Years'  Vie 


CHAPTER  IX  ' 

THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832 
I 

E  campaign  of  1832  marked  the  beginning  of  many  things 
that  have  come  to  be  commonplace  in  American  politics. 
For  the  first  time  the  politicians  were  under  the  compulsion 
of  cultivating  and  conciliating,  not  factions  and  groups,  but 
the  masses  of  the  people.  The  day  of  Democracy  had  dawned, 
with  all  that  means  of  good  and  evil.  And  in  this  struggle  for 
the  suffrage  of  the  masses,  Clay  had  unwittingly  intrigued 
the  Jacksonians  into  the  advantage.  Accustomed  for  years 
to  relying  solely  on  the  wealthy  and  the  influential,  the  great 
Whig  leaders  signally  failed  to  appreciate  that  the  very 
elements  they  had  rallied  to  their  support  would  tend  to 
alienate  the  mechanics  of  the  cities,  the  farmers  of  the  plains, 
the  pioneers  struggling  with  poverty  on  the  fringe  of  the 
fores^rThurlow  Weed,  who  was  one  of  the  few  practical 
Whig  politicians,  saw  it,  but  he  was  then  comparatively 
obscure.  The  clever  politicians  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  in 
stantly  sensed  the  opportunity  and  grasped  it.  A  great 
moneyed  institution,  never  popular  with  the  masses,  was 
seeking  the  humiliation  of  the  most  popular  of  Presidents. 
The  most  fortunate  of  that  day  were  responding  to  the  call 
of  the  Bank.  The  first  battle  at  the  polls  between  the  "soul 
less  corporation"  and  the  "sons  of  toil"  was  on.  For  the 
first  time  in  a  presidential  election  the  demagogue  appeared 
with  his  appeals  to  class  prejudice  and  class  hate,  and  all  the 
demagogy  was  not  on  the  part  of  the  Jacksonians.  If  these 
sought  to  arouse  the  masses  against  the  prosperous,  the  pros 
perous,  with  gibes  about  the  "mob,"  were  quite  as  busy  in 
prejudicing  the  classes  against  the  masses. 


228    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

(And  in  this  campaign  the  press  played  a  more  conspicuous 
anoimportant  part  than  ever  before.  The  Jacksonians,  who 
had  tested  the  political  possibilities  of  the  press  four  years 
before,  had  perfected  an  organization  throughout  the  coun 
try  dependent  on  the  editorial  lead  of  the  "Globe."  If  the 
political  leaders  of  the  Whigs  were  even  now  slow  to  grasp 
the  potentiality  of  publicity,  Nicholas  Biddle  of  the  Bank 
was  more  alert,  and,  through  his  agency,  the  powerful  "New 
York  Courier  and  Enquirer,"  edited  by  James  Watson  Webb, 
deserted  the  Democracy  to  espouse  the  cause  of  Clay  and 
;the  monster."  That  money  played  a  part  in  the  conversion 
was  soon  established  in  a  congressional  investigation;  and 
when  the  "National  Intelligencer,,/  the  Whig  organ,  joy- 
Ously  hailed  the  convert,  Blair  was  able  sarcastically  to 
comment  on  its  being  "charmed  with  his  [Webb's]  honesty 
and  independence  in  complying  with  his  bargain  with  the 
Bank  —  and  the  bold,  frank  and  honorable  way  in  which  he 
unsays  all  that  he  has  said  in  favor  of  the  President  for  the 
price  paid  him  by  Mr.  Biddle."  1  Thus  the  editors  in  1832 
fought  with  a  ferocity  never  before  approached. 
^rf  Prom  the  beginning  Amos  Kendall  realized  that  the  appeal 
would  have  to  be  made  to  the  masses.  He  therefore  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  inaugurating  the  campaign  with  a  more 
splemn  and  dignified  appeal  to  the  more  intellectual  element^ 
<\[he  result  was  a  carefully  prepared  campaign  document  re- 
f  viewing  the  work  of  the  first  three  years  of  Jackson's  Admin 
istration?)  With  a  master  hand  he  marshaled  the  triumphs  of 
the  Administration,  and  marched  them  —  an  imposing  pro 
cession  —  before  the  reader.  He  anticipated  and  met  all 
attacks.  If  parasites  on  the  public  service  had  been  displaced 
by  friends  of  Jackson,  the  new  blood  had  injected  new  energy 
into  the  public  offices.  Business,  long  in  arrears,  had  been 
^brought  up.  Public  accounts  were  more  promptly  rendered 
and  settled.  Scamps  had  been  detected  and  scourged  from 

1  Globe,  Aug.  29.  1832. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832          229 

office,  and  peculations  to  the  amount  of  $280,000  had  been 
uncovered.  Economy  and  increased  efficiency  had  resulted  in 
the  saving  of  hundreds  of  thousands. 

In  our  foreign  relations  Kendall  found  nothing  to  be  desired. 
Jackson  had  found  Colombian  cruisers  depredating  upon 
our  commerce,  and  Colombian  ports  subjecting  American 
cargoes  to  oppressive  duties;  he  secured  indemnities  and  the 
reduction  of  duties  and  the  admission  of  American  vessels  to 
Colombian  waters  on  the  same  footing  as  those  of  Colombia. 
He  found  no  treaty  with  Turkey  and  the  waters  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  closed  to  us;  he  negotiated  a  treaty  and  our  flag  wavec 
in  the  Bosphorus.  He  found  no  treaty  with  Austria  —  on< 
was  negotiated;  a  suspended  treaty  with  Mexico  —  it 
put  in  operation;  the  indemnity  claims  against  Denmark 
for  spoliation  unpressed  —  he  collected  $750,000;  the  British 
West  Indian  controversy  entangled  by  unskilled  diplomacy 
—  he  untangled  it  with  skillful  diplomacy,  and  won  a  victory 
for  American  commerce;  the  French  spoliation  claims  held  in 
abeyance  —  and  he  triumphed  there. 

Thisjb|illiant  foreign^golicy,  he  continued,  had  breathed 
new  me  into^5uT7Iomestic  and  foreign  commerce,  until  "a 
commercial  activity  scarcely  equaled  in  our  history"  was 
enjoyed.  The  hammers  were  heard  in  the  shipyards,  laborers 
were  employed  at  high  wages,  prosperity  pervaded  every 
class  and  section.  At  Boston  alone  fifteen  vessels  were  fitting 
out  for  trade  in  the  Black  Sea. 

Despite  these  achievements  Kendall  complained  that  the 
President's  political  foes  had  devoted  their  energy  and  in 
genuity  to  obstruction  alone.  Congress  had  refused  or  de 
layed  the  necessary  appropriations,  denied  him  the  means 
to  maintain  a  mission  to  France,  refused  to  confirm  the 
appointment  of  his  Minister  to  England,  trumped  up  charges 
of  fraud  against  his  friends,  resorted  to  childish  investiga 
tions,  charged  the  President  with  sending  bullies  to  attack 
members  of  Congress  and  to  spy  upon  them,  and  capped  the 


230    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

climax  of  insufferable  impudence  with  resolutions  to  inquire 
into  the  private  conversations  of  the  hero  of  New  Orleans. 

This  campaign  document,  the  first  of  its  kind,  was  sent 
broadcast  over  the  country  to  awaken  the  indignation  of  the 
faithful  and  to  revive  and  intensify  the  cry,  "Hurrah  for 
Jackson."  1  And  it  had  the  effect  intended.  The  Jacksonians 
became  all  the  more  militant,  ready  to  pounce  upon  and  rend 
their  enemies.  Even  the  courageous  Tyler,  unfriendly  to 
Jackson,  cautioned  his  daughter  in  a  letter  home  —  "Speak  of 
me  always  as  a  Jackson  man  whenever  you  are  questioned."  2 
With  this  document  in  the  hands  of  the  intellectual,  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet  turned  with  their  appeal  to  the  masses  on 
the  Bank  issue.  This  speedily  became  paramount.  But  Clay 
and  the  Whigs  were  busy  with  intrigues  with  groups,  and,  to 
understand  the  remarkable  campaign  in  its  ramifications, 
it  is  necessary  to  pause  for  a  peep  behind  the  scenes  where 
Clay  may  be  seen  in  a  light  other  than  that  of  a  man  who 
"would  rather  be  right  than  President."  We  shall  find  him 
as  willing,  in  Virginia,  to  unite  with  the  champions  of  the 
Nullification  he  abhorred,  as,  in  New  York,  with  the  party 
of  the  Anti-Masons  he  despised. 

II 

AFTER  the  fashion  of  the  old  school  politician  of  his  day,  Clay 
relied  upon  intrigue,  upon  the  cultivation  of  groups  with 
special  interests  and  grievances.  During  the  winter  in  Con 
gress  he  had  devoted  himself  to  the  consolidation  of  business 
and  the  ultra-conservative  elements  behind  his  candidacy. 
The  bitterness  of  the  contest  was  foreshadowed  in  the  spring 
when  Blair  announced  the  publication  of  an  extra  weekly 
issue  of  the  "Globe";  and  in  August,  Duff  Green  made  a 
similar  announcement  as  to  the  "Telegraph."  While  Clay 
planned  to  win  on  the  Bank  issue,  he  very  early  began  a 

1  This  document  is  in  Amos  Kendall's  Autobiography,  296-303. 

2  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  429. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832          231 

furious  flirtation  with  the  Nullifiers  and  the  Anti-Masons, 
thus  injecting  side  issues  that  the  Jacksonians  were  quick  to 
accept.  In  April,  Clay  was  writing  a  Virginia  friend  l  of  a 
possible  coalition  with  the  Nullification  forces  in  three  or 
four  Southern  States  where  extreme  State-Rights  views  were 
prevalent.  Governor  Floyd  of  Virginia,  destined  to  receive 
the  electoral  vote  of  the  South  Carolina  Nullifiers,  and  for  a 
time  alienated  from  Clay,  was  making  overtures  for  a  con 
ciliation.  Duff  Green,  a  messenger  in  Calhoun's  livery,  had 
made  a  remarkable  proposition.  The  purport  of  this  propo 
sition  was  that  Calhoun's  friends  would  present  his  name  for 
the  Presidency  if  assured  of  three  or  four  of  the  Southern 
States;  that  about  August  he  would  be  announced  as  a  can 
didate;  that  if  arrangements  could  be  made  with  Clay  to 
place  no  electoral  ticket  in  the  field  in  Virginia,  and  to  throw 
the  support  of  his  friends  to  Calhoun,  the  latter  could  carry 
the  Old  Dominion;  that  carrying  Virginia,  he  would  have  a 
fair  chance  of  carrying  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  South 
Carolina,  with  a  fighting  chance  in  Alabama  and  Missis 
sippi;  and,  accomplishing  that,  he  could  defeat  the  reelection 
of  Jackson,  and  force  the  determination  of  the  issue  upon  the 
House  of  Representatives  where  Clay  would  no  doubt  be 
elected  to  the  satisfaction  of  Calhoun.  The  wily  editor  made 
it  clear  to  Clay  that  he  was  to  have  no  ticket  in  the  States 
mentioned,  and  should  actively  cooperate  with  Calhoun  in 
Virginia. 

And  Clay  was  not  shocked!  But  he  had  not  "assumed 
that  Calhoun  had  much  political  capital  anywhere  outside 
South  Carolina,"  and  doubted  the  practicability  of  aban 
doning  a  ticket  in  Virginia  because  of  the  imputations  that 
would  follow.  And  yet,  if  Calhoun  could,  by  any  chance, 
carry  three  or  four  of  the  Southern  States,  it  was  a  consum 
mation  devoutly  to  be  wished.  "Let  me  hear  from  you,  my 
dear  friend,  upon  this  matter,"  he  wrote,  "and  particularly 

1  Judge  Brooke. 


232    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

your  views  as  to  the  strength  of  the  party  of  Mr.  Calhoun  in 
Virginia.  Has  it  not  relapsed  into  Jacksonism?  Can  it  be 
brought  forth  again  in  its  original  force  to  the  support  of 
Mr.  Calhoun?  Suppose  Mr.  Calhoun  is  not  put  forth  as  a 
candidate,  what  course,  generally,  will  his  friends  in  Vir 
ginia  pursue?  Could  our  friends  be  prevailed  upon  to  unite 
upon  a  ticket  favorable  to  Mr.  Calhoun?  Or,  in  the  event  of 
no  ticket  being  put  up,  would  they  not  divide  between  Jack 
son  and  Calhoun,  the  larger  part  probably  going  to  Jack 
son?"  1  The  pet  plan  of  the  Calhoun  conspirators  failed,  and 
in  August,  Duff  Green  set  forth  on  a  tour  of  investigation 
into  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  returning  to  Washington 
encouraged  in  the  conviction  that  the  defeat  of  Jackson  could 
be  accomplished  through  the  unification  of  all  the  hostile 
elements  against  him.  In  announcing  the  campaign  extras 
of  the  "Telegraph"  —  could  he  by  chance  have  visited  the 
marble  bank  building  in  Philadelphia?  —  he  declared  that 
"we  believe  that  our  duty  requires  us  to  demonstrate  that 
General  Jackson  ought  not  to  be  reflected."  There  was  no 
mistaking  the  meaning  of  this  move,  and  the  Jacksonians 
were  instantly  on  their  toes.  Under  the  caption,  "Consum 
mation  of  the  Coalition,"  Blair  vigorously  denounced  it  in 
the  "Globe."  "If  Mr.  Clay  were  elected,"  he  wrote,  "Mr. 
Calhoun  is  well  aware  that  it  would  instantly  establish  the 
Southern  League,  which  is  looked  to  by  him  as  his  only  hope 
of  ever  attaining  political  power.  This  is  the  basis  of  the 
coalition  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun.  It  is  like  that 
of  Octavius  and  Anthony  which  severed  the  Roman  em 
pire."  2 

That  Blair  had  not  misinterpreted  was  immediately  evi 
dent  in  the  response  of  the  Whig  press.  The  influential 
Pleasants,  of  the  "Richmond  Whig,"  warmly  commended 
Green's  action  and  promised,  "on  the  part  of  the  *  Telegraph, ' 

1  Clay  to  Brooke,  Clay's  Works,  iv.  332-33. 
8  Globe.  Aug.  25, 1832. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832          233 

a  luminous  expose  of  the  misrule  of  Jacksonism."  "Ah," 
wrote  Blair,  "the  *  Richmond  Whig'  upon  the  appearance  of 
Duff  Green's  proposals  for  a  joint  opposition  leaps  into  its 
embrace."  1  And  from  that  moment  the  "Globe"  kept  before 
its  readers  constantly  the  Calhoun  heresy  and  the  coalition 
with  the  Whigs.  Early  in  September  he  began  to  discuss 
pointedly  the  Nullification  meetings  in  South  Carolina  ad 
dressed  by  "Mr.  Calhoun's  leading  partisans,"  warning  that 
the  sinister  doctrine  was  "subversive  of  the  Union,"  and  that 
"by  forcing  a  clash  between  the  Government  and  South 
Carolina,  Calhoun  hopes  to  arouse  the  sympathy  of  the  en 
tire  South."  And  he  continued  with  a  prescience  that  is  now 
startling:  "The  Vice-President,  as  his  prospect  closes  upon 
the  elevated  honors  of  the  Federal  Government,  is  exerting 
all  his  influence  to  place  South  Carolina  in  a  position  which 
shall  compel  the  other  Southern  States  to  unite  in  a  new 
system,  or  confederacy,  which  may  open  new  views  to  his 
ambition."  * 

Thus,  burning  all  bridges  as  far  as  the  Nullifiers  were 
concerned,  the  Jacksonian  leaders,  in  the  interest  of  the 
President,  concentrated  on  capitalizing  their  connection  with 
the  Whigs  and  the  Bank.  When  Whig  and  Bank  papers 
warmly  recommended  the  "Telegraph"  to  the  patronage  of 
the  Clay  supporters,  Blair  gave  the  recommendation  public 
ity,  with  the  suggestion  that  "that  paper  is  the  open  advo 
cate  of  Calhoun  and  Nullification."  Thus  he  forced  the 
coalition  into  the  open.  "Are  not  the  Bank  party  turning 
to  the  Nullifiers?"  he  asked.  "If  not,  why  do  they  circulate 
the  extra  of  Duff  Green  which  is  devoted  to  Nullification?"3 
Thus,  by  boldly  repudiating  and  defying  the  Nullification 
element  and  Calhoun,  the  Jackson  leaders  more  than  neutral 
ized  any  benefit  that  Clay  and  the  Whigs  might  receive 
from  their  sympathy  and  support. 

1  Globe,  Aug.  29. 1832.  *  Ibid.,  Sept.  5,  1832.  *  Ibid..  Sept.  7.  1832. 


234    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ra 

BUT  more  important  to  Clay  than  the  attitude  of  the  Nulli- 
fiers  was  that  of  the  Anti-Masons.  Strangely  enough,  he  had, 
at  first,  looked  upon  the  growing  movement,  not  only  with 
complacency,  but  with  approval.  After  the  failure  of  the  new 
party  in  New  York  in  1830,  he  had  written  to  a  friend:  "If 
they  had  been  successful  they  would  probably  have  brought 
out  an  Anti-Masonic  candidate  for  President.  Still,  if  I  had 
been  in  New  York,  I  should  have  given  my  suffrage  to 
Granger.1  I  will  not  trouble  you  with  the  reasons."  2  In 
the  same  letter,  however,  he  expresses  the  opinion  that  such 
strength  as  the  prescriptive  party  might  muster  would  ul 
timately  go  to  the  Whigs,  in  general,  and  himself  in  particu 
lar,  because  "it  is  in  conformity  with  the  general  nature  of 
minorities,"  when  they  have  no  candidate  of  their  own,  to 
support  the  strongest  opposition  party.  Then,  too,  they  were 
protectionists,  had  been  abused  by  Van  Buren's  organization 
in  New  York,  "and  General  Jackson  has,  as  they  think,  per 
secuted  them."  At  any  rate,  wrote  the  intriguing  politician, 
"there  is  no  occasion  for  our  friends  to  attack  them." 

But  a  new  light  broke  for  Clay  when,  in  the  spring  of  1831, 
the  Anti-Masons  called  a  national  convention,  to  meet  two 
months  before  the  Whigs'.  His  close  friends  became  appre 
hensive.  The  sounding  of  the  Anti-Masons  disclosed  no 
Clay  sentiment.  Quite  the  contrary.  Much  distressed  at 
this  revelation,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  movement  urged 
him  to  exert  his  well-known  powers  of  conciliation.3  By  the 
latter  part  of  June  he  had  concluded  that  the  new  party 
might  not  prove  so  advantageous  after  all.  Writing  to  his 
bosom  friend,  Francis  Brooke,  he  found  that  "Anti-Masonry 
seems  to  be  the  only  difficulty  now  in  the  way  of  success,  both 

1  Anti-Mason  candidate  for  Governor. 

2  Clay  to  Bailbache,  Clay's  Works,  iv,  289. 

8  Richard  Rush  to  Clay,  Clay's  Works,  iv,  299. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832  235 

in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York."  *  By  the  middle  of  July  he 
was  convinced  that  "it  would  be  politic  to  leave  the  Jackson 
party  exclusively  to  abuse  the  Antis."  2  A  few  days  later  he 
had  concluded  that  "the  policy  of  the  Antis  is  to  force  us  to 
their  support,"  and  that  "ours  should  be  to  win  them  to 
ours."3 

As  the  time  for  the  convention  approached,  the  Antis  were 
split  on  Clay,  a  small  portion  wishing  the  nomination  of 
one  who  would  later  withdraw  in  his  favor,  but  the  majority 
hoping  for  the  nomination  of  one  who  would  be  acceptable  to 
the  Whigs  in  their  convention  two  months  later.  The  prob 
lem  was  finally  solved  by  the  nomination  of  William  Wirt. 

That  this  brilliant  man  would  have  scorned  the  honor  on 
any  other  theory  than  that  his  nomination  would  be  accept 
able  to  both  the  Whigs  and  Clay,  with  whom  he  had  served 
in  the  Cabinet,  and  for  whom  he  entertained  an  affection,  is 
shown  in  his  correspondence.4  But,  while  resting  at  Ashland 
and  still  ignorant  of  the  convention's  action,  Clay  was  writ 
ing  to  Brooke  that  "if  the  alternative  is  between  Andrew 
Jackson  and  an  Anti-Masonic  candidate  with  his  exclusive 
prescriptive  principles,  I  should  be  embarrassed  in  the 
choice."  6 

In  the  interval  between  the  two  conventions,  the  Anti- 
Masons  clung  desperately  to  the  hope  that  Clay  would  do 
violence  to  his  dominating,  domineering  disposition  by  sacri 
ficing  himself.  He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Wirt's.  Their 
views  on  fundamentals  were  alike.  With  Wirt  elected,  Clay 
would  be  the  power  behind  the  throne.  With  a  divided 
opposition,  Jackson's  election  would  be  inevitable,  and  Clay 
hated  him  with  a  consuming  hate.  For  identical  reasons  the 
Whigs  hoped  that,  on  the  nomination  of  Clay,  Wirt  would  re 
tire  in  his  favor.  As  the  Whig  convention  approached,  Wirt 
abandoned  all  hope  of  his  own  nomination.  "There  seems 

1  Clay's  Works,  iv,  304.  2  Ibid.,  306.  »  Ibid.,  307-08. 

4  See  Kennedy's  Life  of  Wirt.  6  Clay's  Works,  iv,  316. 


236    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

to  be  no  doubt  of  Mr.  Clay's  nomination  in  the  convention 
next  week,"  he  wrote  to  Judge  Carr.  "So  be  it.  In  a  personal 
point  of  view  I  shall  feel  that  I  have  made  a  lucky  escape."  1 
After  the  nomination  of  Clay,  it  was  the  ardent  wish  of  Wirt 
to  withdraw.  His  intimations  to  his  party's  leaders  only 
brought  the  assurance  that  were  the  party  dissolved  there 
"were  not  enough  Clay  men  among  them  to  touch  New  York 
or  Pennsylvania,  nor  consequently  to  elect  Mr.  Clay,"  and  he 
was  reluctantly  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  "there  [was] 
no  more  chance  for  Mr.  Clay  with  the  Anti-Masons  than 
for  the  Pope  of  Rome."  2  But  the  absurdity  of  his  situation 
annoyed  him,  and  he  was  soon  wishing  for  "a  little  villa  in 
Florida,  or  somewhere  else,  to  retire  to,  and  beguile  the 
painful  hours,  as  Cicero  did,  in  writing  essays." 

If  he  remained  in  the  field,  it  was  because  Henry  Clay  pre 
ferred  it.  The  relations  of  the  ostensible  rivals  were  close 
and  confidential  throughout  the  campaign.  Clay  feared  that 
Wirt's  withdrawal  would  be  ascribed  to  his  influence,  and 
would  intensify  the  Anti-Masonic  feeling  against  him.  Then, 
again,  the  Whig  board  of  strategy  planned  to  deprive  Jackson 
of  the  electoral  vote  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  through 
an  ingenious  combination  of  the  two  opposition  parties  in 
those  States.  In  New  York  the  prescriptive  party,  meeting 
first,  endorsed  its  national  nominees,  and  nominated  leaders 
of  their  own  for  Governor  and  Lieutenant-Governor.  With 
great  cunning  they  selected  an  electoral  ticket,  including 
Chancellor  Kent,  an  idolater  of  Clay.  The  Whigs  followed, 
and  accepted  the  Anti-Masonic  ticket,  and  thus  the  Opposi 
tion  was  consolidated  in  the  Empire  State.  There  was  no 
mystery  as  to  the  intent  in  regard  to  the  State  ticket  —  it 
was  to  have  the  united  support  of  both  parties.  The  weak 
ness,  with  the  public,  was  the  absence  of  any  indication  as 
to  the  intended  disposal  of  the  electoral  vote.  The  plan  of  the 
conspirators  was  to  throw  the  electoral  votes  to  Wirt  pro- 

1  Kennedy's  Life  of  Wirt,  n,  314.  « Ibid.,  318. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OP  1832  237 

vided  there  was  a  possibility  of  his  election,  or  no  possibility  of 
the  election  of  either  Wirt  or  Clay;  and  for  Clay  in  the  event 
Wirt  could  not  win  and  the  Whig  nominee  could  with  the 
electoral  vote  of  New  York.1  The  plan  met  with  the  hearty 
approval  of  Clay,  who  entertained  high  hopes  of  its  success 
in  depriving  Jackson  of  the  electoral  vote  upon  which  his 
election  depended.2  Thus,  before  the  campaign  had  fairly 
started,  the  politicians  of  these  two  parties  were  working  in 
close  cooperation  with  a  complete  understanding,  while  the 
rank  and  file  of  both  parties  were  left  entirely  in  the  dark. 
Wirt,  with  no  faith  in  the  coalition,  was  doing  nothing  to 
advance  his  candidacy.3  Thus  the  nominee  of  one  party  was 
secretly  planning  to  deliver  the  prize  to  the  man  his  own  party 
had  repudiated.  Not  only  did  he  write  no  letters  to  advance 
his  party's  cause,  but  he  "refused  to  answer  whenever  such 
answers  could  be  interpreted  as  canvassing  for  office."  4 

Meanwhile  the  Jacksonians  were  merely  amused  at  these 
intrigues  of  the  old  school  politicians.  The  secret  of  their 
strength,  here  as  always,  was  in  their  daring.  Not  only  did 
they  ignore  the  Anti-Masons  and  refuse  to  conciliate  them, 
but  they  cast  them  off  as  completely  as  they  had  the  Nulli- 
fiers.  The  highest  member  of  the  Masonic  order  in  America 
was  at  the  head  of  Jackson's  Cabinet,  and  John  Quincy 
Adams  gave  the  utmost  publicity  to  the  fact  by  addressing 
his  attacks  on  Masonry  to  Edward  Livingston.  Jackson 
himself  sought  and  found  an  opportunity  to  go  on  record 
against  the  prescriptive  hysteria.  In  this  manner  the  Jack- 
sonian  managers  rallied  the  Masons  to  their  banner,  and 
they  held  in  their  hands  the  ammunition  with  which  to  blow 
to  atoms  the  plan  of  the  coalition  leaders  to  deliver  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  enemies  of  Masonry  to  Clay. 

Early  in  October  Blair  published  in  the  "Globe,"  without 

1  William  H.  Seward's  Autobiography,  100. 

2  Clay  to  Brooke,  Clay's  Works,  iv,  339. 

8  Wirt  to  Carr,  Kennedy's  Life  of  Wirt,  n,  328-29. 
*  Kennedy's  Life  of  Wirt,  H,  331. 


238    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

comment,  Clay's  manly  letter  to  some  Anti-Masons  in  In 
diana  refusing  to  be  drawn  into  sectarian  quarrels.  "If  a 
President  of  the  United  States  .  .  .  were  to  employ  his  offi 
cial  power  to  sustain,  or  to  abolish,  or  to  advance  the  inter 
est  of  Masonry  or  Anti-Masonry,"  he  had  written,  "it  would 
be  an  act  of  usurpation  and  tyranny."  1  That  was  enough. 
The  Democratic  press  of  the  country,  taking  the  cue  from 
the  "Globe,"  reproduced  the  letter,  and  thus  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  party  everywhere  was  strengthened  in  its  deter 
mination  not  to  support  its  author. 

While  Clay  was  intriguing  with  the  Nullifiers  and  the  Anti- 
Masons,  the  Democrats  were  audaciously  denouncing  both, 
and  were  gaining  rather  than  losing  by  their  temerity. 

\ 
IV  n 

INHERE  was  but  one  issue  —  and  that  the  Banl^  Clay  had 
made  it  the  issue  with  the  officers  of  the  institution  and  their 
allied  business  interests;  the  clever  leaders  of  the  Jackson 
forces  made  it  an  issue  with  the  masses  of  the  people,  who 
had  always  looked  with  suspicion  and  dislike  upon  the  power 
ful  financial  institution '^Vnd  then,  perhaps,  the  "Emperor 
Nicholas"  bitterly  regretted  having  yielded  to  the  blandish 
ments  of  Clay.  If  he  had  not  considered  the  cost  in  money 
to  the  institution  when  he  yielded,  Clay  understood  it  as 
well  as  Webster.  They  knew  that  a  fight  against  the  "weak 
old  man,"  as  they  foolishly  called  Jackson,  would  be  "no 
holiday  affair."  Satisfied  of  the  support  of  the  business 
element,  they  had  calculated  the  cost  of  reaching  the  people 
generally  —  and  they  had  the  work  of  Biddle  cut  out  for 
him.3  And  almost  immediately,  Biddle  was  as  deeply  in 
volved  as  Clay  himself. 

V  The  campaign  plans  of  the  two  parties  differed,  since  their 
ijjpecial  appeals  were  to  different  elements.    The  Clay  men 

1  Globe,  Oct.  8,  1832.  2  McMaster,  iv,  145. 

8  Van  Buren's  Political  Parties,  323. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832          239 

relied  on  the  distribution,  with  Bank  money,  of  the  printed 
speeches  of  £lay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun,  of  tracts  and 
pamphlets^These,  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  masses,  were 
thrown  aside.  They  were  sympathetically  perused  by  the 
bankers,  merchants,  manufacturers,  preachers,  professors, 
and  lawyers  who  were  in  no  need  of  conversion.1  The  Bank 
made  desperate  efforts  to  win  to  its  support  the  press  of  the 
larger  cities  and  towns.  It  was  notoriously  willing  to  prove 
its  appreciation  of  such  support  with  the  coin  of  the  realm.2 
That  Webb's  paper  had  been  won  over  with  Bank  money 
was  common  knowledge  after  the  congressional  investigation, 
and  Amos  Kendall,  in  the  "Globe,"  charged  that  the  "Eve 
ning  Post "  had  been  "approached,"  and  that  the  " Standard " 
of  Philadelphia  had  been  offered  five  hundred  dollars  and  a 
new  set  of  type,  and  the  inducement  had  been  increased  by 
five  hundred  dollars  two  days  later. 

Thoroughly  frightened,  Biddle  spent  lavishly  for  the  print 
ing  and  distribution  of  speeches  and  articles.  Mailing  the 
president  of  the  Kentucky  Bank  3  Webster's  speech  on  the 
Veto,  and  an  article  reviewing  the  Message,  he  instructed 
that  these,  "as  well  as  Mr.  Clay's  &  Mr.  E wing's  speeches  on 
the  same  subject,"  be  "printed  and  dispersed."  4  More  than 
$80,000  —  an  enormous  sum  for  those  days  —  was  spent  by 
the  Bank  under  the  head  of  "stationery  and  printing"  during 
the  period  of  the  campaign.  Thousands  of  friendly  newspa 
pers  were  bought  in  bulk  and  scattered  broadcast,  and  Blair 
announced  the  discovery  that  "about  four  bushels  of  the 
*  Extra  Telegraph'  is  sent  to  New  York  to  a  single  individual 
for  distribution."  5  An  analysis  of  Benton's  speech  and  a 
reply  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  and  thousands  flooded 
the  country  and  burdened  the  mails. 

But  more  sinister  still  was  the  appearance,  for  the  first 

1  McMaster,  iv,  146. 

2  See  Biddle  to  James  Hunter,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  127. 
8  John  Tilford.          4  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  197. 

6  Globe,  Sept.  26.  1832. 


240    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

time  in  American  politics,  of  the  weapons  of  intimidation  and 
coercion.  In  New  Orleans  a  bank  commenced  discounting 
four  months'  paper  at  eight  per  centum  —  "because  of  the 
veto."  An  advertisement  appeared  in  a  Cincinnati  paper 
offering  $2.50  per  hundred  for  pork  if  Clay  should  be  elected, 
$1.50  if  Jackson  won  —  a  bribe  of  one  dollar  a  head  on  each 
hundred  pounds  of  pork.  From  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania, 
went  forth  the  disturbing  report  that  "a  large  manufacturer 
has  discharged  all  his  hands,  and  others  have  given  notice  to 
do  so,"  and  that  "not  a  single  steam  boat  will  be  built  this 
season  at  Wheeling,  Pittsburg  or  Louisville."  From  Balti 
more:  "A  great  many  mechanics  are  thrown  out  of  employ 
ment  by  the  stoppage  of  building.  The  prospect  ahead  is 
that  we  shall  have  a  very  distressing  winter."  And  so  the 
work  went  on,  with  the  Bank  and  its  political  champions 
holding  the  sword  of  Damocles  over  the  heads  of  the  masses 
who  dared  to  vote  for  Jackson.1  Jackson  was  held  before  the 
conservative  and  timid  as  rash,  dangerous,  destructive. 
Webster's  State  convention  speech  at  Worcester,  expanding 
on  the  unfortunate  sentence  from  the  Veto  Message  as  to 
the  finality  of  Supreme  Court  decisions,  was  given  general 
circulation.  Even  the  brilliant  Ritchie,  of  the  "Richmond 
Enquirer, "  lived  in  constant  terror  of  some  rash  act  of  Jack 
son's  that  would  wreck  the  country.2 

For  the  benefit  of  the  ardent  Jacksonians  who  disliked  and 
distrusted  Van  Buren,  the  nominee  for  Vice-President,  the 
Whig  and  Bank  press  gravely  quoted  some  mysterious  "Phil- 
adelphian"  to  whom  Jackson  had  said,  "with  his  own  lips," 
that  a  reelection  would  satisfy  him  as  a  vindication,  and  that 
he  would  resign  and  go  home,  leaving  Van  Buren  in  the  Presi 
dency.  Even  the  "National  Intelligencer"  referred  to  the 
rumor  as  "the  disclosure  of  an  important  fact .  .  .  going  to 
confirm  our  own  impressions."  And  Blair  had  been  forced  to 
notice  and  denounce  the  story  with  the  comment  that  "we 
k  *  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  i.  281.  2  Van  Buren's  Political  Parties,  323. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832  241 

had  always  thought  Simpson  the  most  depraved  of  all  the 
miscreants  purchased  by  the  Bank,  but  certainly  now  Gales  l 
deserves  to  be  put  below  him."  2  Earlier  in  the  campaign 
the  Whigs  had  attempted  to  serve  the  same  purpose  by  cir 
culating  alarming  reports  regarding  Jackson's  health.  And 
Blair,  in  denouncing  this  canard,  announced  that  the  Presi 
dent  "receives  from  50  to  100  persons  daily,  is  incessantly 
engaged  in  the  despatch  of  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  joins 
regularly  at  table  his  large  dinner  parties  of  from  40  to  50  per 
sons  twice  a  week."  3 

For  the  benefit  of  the  preachers,  teachers,  and  moral  forces, 
the  old  stories  of  Jackson's  bloodthirstiness  were  revived, 
apropos  of  the  attack  by  Sam  Houston  on  a  member  of  Con 
gress.  At  first  the  President  had  merely  instigated  the  as 
sault  —  and  then  the  imaginative  Whig  scribes  worked  out  a 
bloodcurdling,  circumstantial  story.  After  the  brutal  attack, 
the  swaggering  Houston  had  met  Postmaster-General  Barry 
at  the  theater,  and  the  two  had  talked  it  over  at  the  theater 
bar,  and,  after  being  congratulated  by  the  Cabinet  member, 
he  had  called  on  Jackson  and  been  heartily  commended  for 
his  act.  „ 

f  XJjsfl^the  Whigs  used  every  weapon  that  came  into  their 
hands  — "ihoney,  subsidized  and  bought  papers,  the  hostility 
to  Masonry,  the  hate  of  the  Nullifiers,  the  fear  of  Van  Buren, 
intimidation,  coercion,  and  slander.  And  something  com 
paratively  new  to  politics  —  the  cartoon  —  soon  became  a 
feature  of  the  fightL_Here  the  Democrats  were  at  a  disad 
vantage,  and  the  pictorial  editorials  that  have  come  down  to 
us  are  largely  anti- Jackson.  Here  we  find  the  President  pic 
tured  as  a  raving  maniac,  as  Don  Quixote  tilting  at  the  pillars 
of  the  splendid  marble  bank  building  in  Philadelphia,  as  a 
burglar  attempting  to  force  the  bank  doors  with  a  battering 
ram)  while  the  most  popular  cartoon  among  the  friends  of 

1  Editor  of  the  Intelligencer. 

2  Globe,  Sept.  15, 1832.  3  Ibid.,  Feb.  1,  1832. 


242    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

I  Clay  pictured  Jackson  receiving  a  crown  from  Van  Buren 
/  and  a  scepter  from  the  Devil.1 

V 

BUT  all  the  while  the  consummate  politicians  of  the  Jackson 
party  were  reaching  and  arousing  the  masses.  Long  before 
the  opening  of  the  campaign,  Amos  Kendall,  Lewis,  Hill, 
and  Blair  were  cunningly  appealing  to  the  interests,  the  prej 
udices,  and  the  hero  worship  of  the  voters  of  the  cornfield 
and  the  village^These  forerunners  of  the  modern  politician 
were  keenly  appreciative  of  the  fact  that  between  1824  and 
1832  a  great  body  of  voters,  previously  proscribed  because  of 
their  poverty  and  lack  of  property,  had  been  newly  enfran 
chised.  With  the  Whigs  these  were  non-existent.  The  jour 
nalistic  training  of  Kendall,  Hill,  and  Blair  pointed  to  the 
press  as  the  surest  way  to  reach  the  masses  with  their  propa 
ganda.  The  old-fashioned  politician  still  affected  a  contempt 
for  the  press,  and  particularly  for  the  little  struggling  papers 
of  the  country.  The  genius  of  Kendall  immediately  seized 
upon  these,  and,  long  before  the  campaign  began,  the  sallow, 
prematurely  gray  young  man  of  mystery,  shut  up  in  his  petty 
office  in  the  Treasury,  was  busy  night  and  day,  and  espe 
cially  at  night,  preparing  articles  and  editorials  laudatory 
of  the  Jackson  policies,  denunciatory  of  the  Opposition,  and 
these,  sent  to  editors  all  over  the  country,  were  printed  as 
their  own.  Thus  the  followers  of  Jackson  in  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  country  were  constantly  supplied  with  ammu 
nition  in  the  shape  of  arguments  they  could  comprehend  and 
assimilate. 

The  center  and  soul  of  the  Democratic  organization  was 
the  office  of  the  "Globe."  Among  the  papers  of  national 
reputation,  but  two  others  were  supporting  Jackson,  the 
"New  Hampshire  Patriot"  of  "Ike"  Hill,  and  Van  Buren's 

1  Parton's  Jackson,  in,  423;  McMaster,  iv,  147.  Some  of  these  cartoons  may  be 
seen  at  the  Congressional  Library. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832          243 

organ,  the  "Albany  Argus."  But  the  "Globe"  was  equal  to 
the  demand  upon  it.  Doubling  the  number  of  issues,  the 
ferociously  partisan  Blair  sat  in  the  office  writing  feverishly, 
with  Kendall  gliding  in  and  out  with  copy.  Both  possessed 
a  genius  for  controversy.  Both  had  mastered  a  style  com 
bining  literary  qualities,  attractive  to  the  educated,  with 
the  "  pep"  and  "  punch  "  that  impressed,  interested,  delighted, 
the  multitude.  Blair  dipped  his  pen  in  vitriol.  In  satire  and 
sarcasm  he  had  few  equals.  He  was  no  parlor  warrior,  and 
he  struck  resounding  blows  like  a  boiler-maker.  And  he 
wrote  in  a  flowing  style  that,  at  times,  approached  real  elo 
quence.  Having  the  average  man  in  mind,  his  editorials, 
filling  the  greater  part  of  the  paper,  were  concise  and  brief. 
When  language  seemed  weak,  he  resorted  to  italics.  The 
longer  and  more  sustained  argumentative  articles  were  writ 
ten  by  the  more  brilliant  Kendall.  Through  July,  August, 
September,  and  October  he  wrote  a  series  of  articles  on  "The 
Bank  and  the  Veto,"  beginning  in  an  argumentative  vein, 
and  gradually  growing  personal  until  he  was  devoting  one 
issue  to  the  financial  connections  between  the  Bank  and 
Duff  Green,  another  to  similar  connections  of  Webb,  of  the 
"Courier  and  Enquirer,"  and  another  to  Gales,  of  the  "In 
telligencer." 

Infuriated  by  the  gibes,  taunts,  and  attacks,  the  WTiigs 
charged  that  the  "Globe"  was  being  distributed  gratuitously 
—  the  business  manager  replied  with  an  affidavit  as  to  the 
legitimacy  of  its  circulation.1  News  of  the  deepest  import 
was  crowded  out  by  the  exigencies  of  the  campaign,  and 
with  the  cholera  scourge  taking  a  heavy  toll  of  lives  in  Wash 
ington,  the  only  mention  of  it  in  the  "Globe"  was  in  the 
official  reports  of  the  Board  of  Health.  But  there  was  room 
for  columns  of  quotations  from  Democratic  papers  on  the 
Veto,  all  striking  the  exultant  key  —  "The  Monster  is  De 
stroyed." 

1  Globe,  Sept.  26,  1832,  affidavit  of  John  C.  Rives. 


244    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Only  the  persistent  hammering  of  the  Whigs  on  the  un 
fortunate  sentence  of  the  Veto  Message  caused  acute  distress 
in  Democratic  circles.  Webster's  Worcester  speech  was 
annoying.  Here  a  sneer,  there  a  gibe  in  the  "Globe,"  but 
sneers  and  gibes  did  not  quite  satisfy  the  editor,  who  finally 
made  a  laborious  effort  to  explain,1  and,  finding  the  effort 
tame,  Blair  countercharged  with  the  publication  of  Clay's 
bitter  anti-Bank  speech  of  1811  with  appropriate  comments 
upon  it  from  the  Jacksonian  papers  of  the  country. 

As  the  campaign  approached  the  end,  Blair  stressed  the 
theory  that  the  real  fight  was  between  Jackson  and  the  Bank, 
with  Clay  a  mere  pawn  in  the  game.  "We  see,"  he  wrote, 
"the  most  profligate  apostasies  invited  and  applauded  —  the 
grossest  misrepresentations  circulated  —  the  worst  forgeries 
committed  —  open  briberies  practiced,  and  all  for  what? 
Not  avowedly  to  elect  Henry  Clay  or  William  Wirt,  but  any 
'available  candidate'  2  —  in  other  words,  any  candidate  with 
whom,  in  the  end,  the  Bank  directors  can  make  the  best 
bargain."  3  And  a  week  later,  under  the  caption,  "The 
Gold,"  Blair  announces  that  through  private  advices  "we 
learn  that  certain  heavy  trunks,  securely  hooped  with  iron, 
have  arrived  at  Lexington  4  from  the  East."  5  Such  was  the 
character  of  the  publicity  with  which  the  Jacksonians  ap 
pealed  to  the  masses  of  the  people. 

But  the  practical  minds  of  the  leaders  of  the  Kitchen  Cabi 
net  were  not  content  with  creating  public  opinion  —  they 
systematically  organized  and  directed  it.  In  every  commu 
nity,  no  matter  how  obscure,  some  Jackson  leader,  with  a 
genius  for  organization  work,  was  busy  welding  the  Jackson 
forces  into  a  solid  mass.  Here  Major  Lewis  took  charge.  He 
anticipated  the  card-index  system  of  the  modern  politicians. 
There  was  scarcely  a  county  in  the  country  in  which  he  did 
not  know  the  precise  man  or  men  upon  whom  absolute  reli- 

1  Globe,  July,  28,  1832.  2  Duff  Green's  expression. 

3  Globe,  Oct.  17.  1832.  4  Clay's  home.  6  Globe,  Oct.  23,  1832. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832          245 

ance  could  be  placed.  And  "  Ike  "  Hill,  now  a  United  States 
Senator,  made  an  extensive  organizing  tour  through  Ohio  and 
Pennsylvania  in  early  August. 

In  both  publicity  and  organization,  the  greater  part  of  the 
ability  and  all  the  genius  was  with  Jackson. 

VI 

THE  Jacksonians  depended  also  to  a  greater  extent  than  the 
Opposition  on  appeals  to  the  people,  face  to  face.  A  crea 
ture  of  another  world,  looking  down  from  the  skies  upon  the 
United  States  in  the  late  summer  and  autumn  of  1832,  would 
have  concluded  that  its  people  moved  about  in  enormous 
processions  on  horseback,  with  waving  flags,  branches  and 
banners.  Great  meetings  were  held  in  groves,  addressed  by 
fiery  orators,  furiously  denouncing  "The  Monster"  and  the 
"Corporation"  and  calling  upon  the  people  to  "stand  by 
the  Hero."  Men  left  their  homes,  bade  farewell  to  their  fam 
ilies  as  though  enlisting  for  a  war,  and  rode  from  one  meet 
ing  to  another  for  weeks  at  a  time.1  Nor  was  this  hysterical 
enthusiasm  confined  to  the  more  primitive  sections  of  the 
country.  A  French  traveler  sojourning  in  New  York  City 
was  profoundly  impressed  by  a  Jackson  parade  there. 
"It  was  nearly  a  mile  long,"  he  wrote.  "The  Democrats 
marched  in  good  order  to  the  glare  of  torches;  the  banners 
were  more  numerous  than  I  have  ever  seen  in  any  re 
ligious  festival;  all  were  in  transparency  on  account  of  the 
darkness.  On  some  were  inscribed  the  names  of  Demo 
cratic  societies  or  sections;  others  bore  imprecations  against 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Nick  Biddle  and  Old  Nick 
here  figured  largely.  .  .  .  From  farther  than  the  eye  could 
reach  came  marching  on  the  Democrats.  The  procession 
stopped  before  the  houses  of  the  Jackson  men  to  fill  the  air 
with  cheers,  and  halted  at  the  door  of  the  leaders  of  the 
opposition  to  give  three,  six  or  nine  groans.  These  scenes 

.     1  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  248. 


246    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

belong  to  history  and  partake  of  the  grand;  they  are  the 
episodes  of  a  wondrous  epic  which  will  bequeath  a  lasting 
memory  to  posterity."  * 

And  into  these  amazing  demonstrations  the  campaign 
glee  club,  also  new  to  American  politics,  entered,  to  play  a 
conspicuous  part,  with  pretty  girls,  and  children  gayly  dressed, 
singing  round  the  hickory  poles  that  were  raised  wherever 
there  were  idolaters  of  Jackson.  And  so  they  sang: 

"Here's  a  health  to  the  heroes  who  fought 
And  conquered  in  Liberty's  cause; 
Here 's  health  to  Old  Andy  who  could  not  be  bought 
To  favor  aristocrat  laws. 
Hurrah  for  the  Roman-like  Chief  — 
He  never  missed  fire  at  all; 
But  ever  when  called  to  his  country's  relief 
Had  a  ready  picked  flint  and  a  ball. 

"Hurrah  for  the  Hickory  tree 
From  the  mountain  tops  down  to  the  sea. 
It  shall  wave  o'er  the  grave  of  the  Tory  and  knave, 
And  shelter  the  honest  and  free."  2 

Even  where  the  Whigs  were  strongest,  the  militant  Demo 
crats  poured  forth  in  defiant  demonstrations.  When  Jack 
son,  returning  to  Washington  from  the  Hermitage  in  the 
closing  days  of  the  campaign,  approached  Lexington,  the 
home  of  his  rival,  a  multitude  streamed  down  the  road  five 
miles  to  meet  him,  with  over  a  thousand  on  horseback  and  in 
carriages,  and  before  he  reached  his  lodging  the  throng  ex 
tended  back  two  miles  along  the  road  "with  green  hickory 
bushes  waving  like  bright  banners  in  a  breeze."  3 

It  was  inevitable  that  in  such  a  campaign  personalities 
should  intrude.  In  the  winter  of  1831-32,  while  Congress 
was  in  session,  Jackson  took  advantage  of  the  presence  of  Dr. 
Harris,  an  eminent  Philadelphia  surgeon,  to  have  the  bullet 
from  Benton's  pistol,  long  lodged  in  his  shoulder,  removed. 

1  M.  Chevalier,  as  quoted  by  Sargent,  Public  Men  and  Events,  I,  249. 

2  From  the  Globe.  8  Description  in  the  Globe. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832  247 

When  the  surgeon  appeared  at  the  White  House,  he  was  en 
gaged  with  company,  but  excused  himself  with  the  explana 
tion  that  he  would  have  to  submit  to  an  operation;  and  a  few 
hours  later  he  reappeared  among  his  friends  with  his  arm  in 
a  sling.  "Precisely,"  wrote  Blair,  "as  he  had  appeared  with 
it  in  battle  among  the  enemies  of  his  country."  1  This  gave 
the  Whigs  their  cue,  and  their  press  teemed  with  references 
to  the  "disgusting  affair"  in  which  the  shot  had  been  fired. 
And  Blair  himself  was  able  to  retaliate  in  kind  with  the  story 
of  a  wound  received  by  Clay  in  a  personal  conflict.  "He 
was  taken  to  a  kind  friend's  house,"  he  wrote,  "he  was 
treated  with  the  utmost  tenderness  and  courtesy  by  that 
friend's  wife  and  family,  and  while  enjoying  their  hospitality, 
he  amused  himself  ...  by  winning  the  money  of  his  kind 
host  at  Brag." 

If  Jackson  was  a  brawler,  it  was  given  out  thus  that  Clay 
was  not  only  a  brawler,  but  a  gambler  and  an  ingrate.  Both 
stories  made  their  way  through  the  country.2 

If  the  cholera  was  not  of  sufficient  importance  for  the  news 
columns  of  the  party  press,  it  was  rich  in  suggestion  to  the 
politicians.  The  Dutch  Synod  requested  Jackson  to  set  a 
day  aside  for  prayer.  He  replied  that  he  had  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  prayer,  but  that  the  special  day  to  be  set  aside 
should  be  designated  by  the  State  authorities.  Whereupon 
Clay  arose  to  offer  a  resolution  in  the  Senate  setting  a  day 
aside  and  fixing  the  day.  Aha,  cried  Blair,  he  wants  a  veto 
on  a  religious  subject.  "It  is  not  the  cholera  that  makes 
them  so  pious;  it  is  the  hope  to  steal  a  march  on  the  old  Hero. 
.  .  .  What  whited  sepulchers  some  of  these  partisan  leaders 
are!"  he  wrote.3 

And  when,  a  little  later,  the  "Pittsburgh  Statesman,"  a 
Clay  paper,  suggested  that  "the  only  effectual  cure,  under 
existing  circumstances,  for  genuine  Jacksonism  is  the  equally 
genuine  Asiatic  Spasmodic  Cholera,"  the  "Troy  Budget," 

1  Globe,  Jan.  14,  1832.  J  Ibid.,  Jan.  18,  1832.  » Ibid.,  July  21,  1832. 


248    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

supporting  Jackson,  was  not  surprised  at  "such  political  de 
pravity,"  coming  from  the  "  editorial  slanderers  and  ruthless 
murderers  of  Mrs.  Jackson."  And  "Ike"  Hill,  in  the  "New 
Hampshire  Patriot,"  was  reminded  that  Clay  himself  had 
prayed  "for  war,  pestilence  and  famine"  in  preference  to  the 
reelection  of  Jackson.  When  the  President  left  the  capital  for 
the  Hermitage,  the  "Troy  Sentinel,"  Whig,  with  its  eye  on 
the  church  vote,  announced  with  emphasis  that  he  had  left 
Washington  "at  eight  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning."  Blair, 
denouncing  the  story  as  "a  lie,"  declared  that  "he  did  not 
leave  the  city  until  Monday  morning  and  spent  the  Sabbath 
in  religious  duties  as  usual."  When  "  Ike  "  Hill,  speaking  at 
a  complimentary  dinner  at  the  Eagle  Coffee  House,  in  Con 
cord,  assailed  Clay  and  Senator  John  Holmes,  and  referred 
to  some  Senators  as  "low  and  blackguard,"  the  "National 
Intelligencer"  protested,  and  Blair  replied  with  a  description 
of  Holmes  as  a  "besotted  Senator  who  had  indulged  in 
indecent  and  ribald  slang  throughout  the  session,"  and  as 
one  given  to  "low  buffoonery"  —  the  "mere  Thersites  of  the 
Senate."  1  Charges  of  impropriety  touching  on  the  personal 
integrity  of  political  leaders  were  commonplace.  The 
"Globe,"  centering  its  fire  upon  the  activities  of  the  Bank, 
charged  it  with  subsidizing  and  seducing  the  press  by  paying 
for  the  publication  of  political  speeches  at  advertising  rates.2 
"Every  press  in  Philadelphia,"  it  said,  "is  closed  by  its  in 
fluence,  against  the  admission  of  anything  unfavorable  to  its 
pretensions.  The  *  Mechanics'  Free  Press'  broke  ground 
against  it  in  conformity  with  the  principles  of  its  party, 
when  lo!  a  shower  of  gold,  amounting  to  $1700  for  publishing 
Mr.  McDuffie's  report,  silenced  it,  and  for  good  reasons, 
doubtless,  it  has  ever  since  held  its  peace  about  the  Bank." 
And  the  Whig  press  was  equally  shocked  to  find  that  officers 

1  Globe,  Aug.  22,  1832.  The  Globe  published  Hill's  speech  in  full,  the  only  one  thus 
noticed  in  the  campaign  except  Forsyth's  tariff  speech  attacking  Clay,  and  C.  K. 
Ingersoll's  tribute  to  Jackson  at  Philadelphia. 

2  That  this  was  done  is  disclosed  in  the  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832  249 

high  in  the  Government  were  sending  the  "Globe"  all  over 
the  country  under  their  official  frank.  "A  lie!"  screamed 
Blair.  And  so  the  battle  of  personalities  went  on.  From 
Hill's  "New  Hampshire  Patriot"  came  the  resurrection  of 
the  long-discredited  "bargain"  story  against  Clay. 

Meanwhile,  what  had  become  of  the  candidates  and  whatT 
were  their  feelings  as  to  the  prospects?    While  scarcely  due  I 
to  the  strain  of  the  campaign,  all  three,  Jackson,  Cla^,  and  \ 
Wirt,  were  threatened  with  serious  illness.    As  we  have  seen,    j 
Clay  was  threatened  with  paralysis  about  the  time  of  his    I 
retirement  from  the  Cabinet.    During  the,  summer  and  au 
tumn  of  1832  the  old  trouble  returnecL^His  friend,  Brooke, 
who  became  concerned  over  his  health,  urged  him  to  caution, 
and  Clay,  much  moved  by  his  friend's  solicitude,  promised 
to  be  more  careful  of  his  diet,  to  abstain  from  wine,  and 
to  reduce  his  consumption  of  tobacco  to  "one  form."  1  At 
times,  during  the  summer  session,  he  had  been  forced  to  leave 
Washington  for  a  brief  period  of  rest  at  his  friend's  home  at 
St.  Julien,  Virginia;  and  as  soon  as  Congress  adjourned,  he 
hastened  to  White  Sulphur  Springs  for  two  weeks  in  hope  of 
relief  from  the  waters.    Skeptical  at  first  of  his  election,  his 
confidence  increased  until  he  and  Webster  were  exchanging 
letters  of  congratulation  on  its  certainty. 

Wirt,  who  had  a  serious  attack,  and  was  in  a  weakened 
condition,  was  forced  by  his  physician  to  leave  Baltimore, 
rather  than  take  a  chance  with  the  cholera.  After  a  brief 
sojourn  at  Bedford  Springs,  he  went  with  his  family  to  Berk 
ley  Springs  where  he  remained  through  September.  Here, 
with  no  thought  of  his  own  election,  but  with  ardent  hopes 
for  Clay,  he  ignored  the  clamor  of  the  campaign.  Riding  and 
lounging  about  the  grounds  during  the  day,  regaling  com 
pany  with  ghost  stories  in  the  evening,  he  bore  no  resemblance 
to  a  presidential  candidate.2 

Soon  after  Congress  adjourned,  the  scourge  reached  Wash- 

1  Clay's  Works,  iv,  337.  *  Life  of  Wirt,  n.  378. 


250    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ington,  taking  heavy  toll  of  the  Irish  and  Swedish  laborers 
engaged  in  the  first  macadamizing  of  Pennsylvania  Avenue, 
and  spreading  rapidly  from  the  poorer  parts  to  the  White 
House  section.  Because  of  Jackson's  weakened  condition, 
his  physicians  insisted  that  he  spend  three  months  at  the 
Hermitage,  and  near  the  middle  of  August,  accompanied 
part  of  the  way  by  Amos  Kendall,  Frank  Blair,  "  Ike  "  Hill, 
Major  Lewis,  Lewis  Cass,  and  Benton,  he  left  the  sweltering 
and  infected  capital  and  went  down  the  Ohio.  He  was  in 
high  glee.  Never  for  a  moment  had  he  doubted  the  result 
of  the  election.  During  the  congressional  fight  over  the  re- 
charter  bill  he  had  not  punished  those  who  had  withheld, 
their  support  by  denying  them  patronage,  except  in  the  case 
of  his  most  bitter  foes.  Just  before  the  vote  in  the  House, 
an  Ohio  Representative  solicited  an  appointment  for  a  con 
stituent,  and,  upon  being  granted  the  favor,  he  explained  that 
he  thought  it  due  Jackson  for  him  to  know  that  the  favor  was 
being  granted  a  member  who  would  vote  for  the  Bank. 

"I  can't  help  that,  sir,  but  I  already  knew  it.  See  here  — 
I  can  take  a  roll  of  the  House  and  check  off  every  Democrat 
who  will  vote  for  the  Bank.  In  fact  I  have  one  here." 

Turning  briskly,  he  produced  it,  and  the  Representative, 
running  over  the  list,  indicated  one  name  as  that  of  a  man 
who  would  vote  with  Jackson. 

"How  do  you  know?"  demanded  Jackson. 

When  told  that  this  Congressman  had  been  so  unmercifully 
berated  by  his  constituents  that  he  had  felt  compelled  to 
change  his  tack,  the  old  warrior  smiled  grimly. 

"He  is  a  lucky  fellow,"  he  said,  "to  get  the  views  of  his 
constituents  beforehand.  There  are  several  other  Democrats 
in  the  House  who  will  not  get  similar  notice  until  next 
fall,  sir."  * 

Nothing  occurred  after  that  incident  to  alter  his  opinion 
of  the  sentiment  of  the  people.  As  Hill  left  the  boat  bearing 

1  This  story  was  related  by  William  Allen  of  Ohio  to  Buell,  who  uses  it  in  his  Life 
of  Jackson. 


THE  DRAMATIC  BATTLE  OF  1832  251 

the  presidential  party  down  the  Ohio,  at  Wheeling,  Jackson 
said,  as  he  clasped  his  hand:  "Isaac,  it'll  be  a  walk.  If  our 
fellows  did  n't  raise  a  finger  from  now  on  the  thing  would  be 
just  as  well  as  done.  In  fact,  Isaac,  it's  done  now." 

That  his  friends  shared  his  confidence  we  have  ample  evi 
dence.  Hill,  writing  to  a  friend,  advised  him  to  bet  all  he 
could  on  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  for  Jackson  —  "not  on 
stated  majorities,  but  hang  on  to  the  general  result."  And 
he  added  frankly,  "I  am  on  the  turf  myself.  Benton  and 
his  friends  out  West  are  picking  up  all  they  can  get."  John 
Van  Buren,  the  son  of  Martin,  and  popularly  known  as 
"Prince  John,"  made  a  small  fortune  with  his  ventures  on 
the  election,  and  Hone,  commenting  on  the  manner  and 
appearance  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  the  nominee  for  Vice- 
President,  thought  it  indicated  a  feeling  of  absolute  security. 
wap  a  notable  victory  for  Jackson  and  his 


p"olicies  —  an  unmistakable  rebuke  to  Clay.  In  electoral 
votes  Jackson  received"  ~£T9,  Clay  49,  and  Wirt  7,  and  the 
popular  vote  gave  Jackson  124,392  over  the  combined 
strength  of  TJlay  anoT  WiFj^thus  proving  the  absurdity  of 
Thurlow  Weed's  theory  that  if  Clay  had  acquiesced  in  the 
wishes  of  the  Anti-Masons  he  could  have  been  elected  .^/t  he 
only  State  carried  by  Wirt  was  Vermont  —  as  he  had  pre 
dicted.  Clay  carried  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecti 
cut,  Delaware,  and  Kentucky,  and  five  out  of  the  eight 
electoral  votes  of  Maryland.  All  the  other  States  went  to 
Jackson  but  one  —  South  Carolina,  with  childish  petulance, 
threw  its  vote  away  at  the  behest  of  Calhoun^' 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  ominous  than  this  action. 
Going  entirely  outside  the  regularly  nominated  candidates, 
and  acting  in  conformity  with  the  views  of  the  Nullifying 
party,  which  insisted  on  placing  the  State  outside  theJJnion, 
she  gave  her  vote  to  Governor  Floyd  of  Virginia.  Ancj^Jack- 
son,  getting  the  returns,  instantly  caught  the  significance  of 
the  act,  and  girded  his  loins  for  a  life-and-death  struggle 
with  Calhoun  and  Nullification^ 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION 

VV  ' 

CALLERS  at  the  Hermitage  about  the  first  of  October  were 

surprised  to  find  Jackson's  thoughts  remote  from  the  election. 
Instead  of  a  jubilant  politician,  they  found  an  old  man 
rothing  with  fury  over  the  news  from  South  Carolina  that 
Nullifiers  had  won  a  majority  of  seats  in  the  Legislature 
and  were  arranging  for  an  early  summoning  of  a  Nullifica 
tion  Convention.  His  indignation  was  so  intense  that  his 
friends  were  shocked  at  the  ferocity  of  his  mood.  The  crisis 
had  not  crept  upon  him  unaware.  With  keen,  far-seeing  eyes 
he  had  watched  its  advance,  hoping  that  something  would 
intervene  to  divert  his  native  State  from  its  mad  course, 
determined,  if  the  issue  came,  to  crush  it  with  an  iron  han 
His  hatred  of  Calhoun  had,  by  this  time,  become  an  obses 
sion,  and  when  he  threatened  to  "  hang  every  leader  ...  of 
that  infatuated  people,  sir,  by  martial  law,  irrespective  of  his 
name,  or  political  or  social  position,"  there  was  no  doubt 
as  to  whom  he  referred.1  Taking  no  further  interest  in  the 
election,  he  put  the  campaign  behind  him  and  hastened  to  the 
capital.  Blair,  the  politician  always,  hurried  to  the  White 
House  with  some  papers  relating  to  the  election.  After  a 
hasty  and  perfunctory  glance,  Jackson  returned  them  to  the 
editor,  with  a  "Thank  you,  sir,"  and  launched  into  a  denun 
ciation  of  the  Nullifiers.  The  date  set  for  the  Nullification 
Convention  had  just  reached  him.  Even  Blair,  accustomed 
to  his  fits  of  temper,  was  startled.  He  was  in  the  presence 
of  a  Jackson  he  had  never  seen  or  known  before.  "The 
lines  in  his  face  were  hard  drawn,  his  tones  were  full  of 

1  Letters  to  Hamilton,  Reminiscences,  231. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         253 

wrath  and  resentment.  .  .  .  Any  one  would  have  thought 
he  was  planning  another  great  battle."  1  Even  the  an 
nouncement  of  victory  at  the  polls  scarcely  interested  him. 
Blair  and  Kendall  called  with  a  table  showing  the  electoral 
vote.  Glancing  at  it  indifferently  for  a  moment,  his  face 
brightened.  "The  best  thing  about  this,  gentlemen,  is  that 
it  strengthens  my  hands  in  this  trouble."  Such  was  the 
spirit  with  which  Andrew  Jackson  faced  the  gravest  crisis 
the  Nation  had  yet  known. 

/begiimjng  with  an  intensely  nationalistic  spirit,2  South 
Carolina  commenced  to  veer  about  with  the  tariff  of  1816, 
and  every  succeeding  tariff  measure  had  been  a  provocation^ 
Two  years  before  Jackson's  inauguration,  the  "Brutus"  ar 
ticles  on  the  "Usurpations  of  the  Federal  Government," 
eloquent,  fiery,  defiant  of  the  "Monster  of  the  North,"  had 
created  a  profound  impression,  commanding  the  adherence 
of  McDuffie,  the  Mirabeau  of  the  disaffected,  Hamilton, 
Preston,  and  Chancellor  William  Harper,  described  by  Hous 
ton  as  "scarcely  inferior  to  Calhoun  as  an  exponent  of  meta 
physical  doctrines."  3  The  principles  of  "Brutus"  only 
awaited  the  authoritative  sanction  of  Calhoun  to  place  upon 
them  the  stamp  of  the  State's  approval. 

J^The  tariff  of  1828  was  the  last  straw,  and  sedition  was  openly  j 
talked  by  the  greater  part  of  the  South  Carolina  congressional  j 
delegation  at  the  home  of  Senator  Hayne.    One  week  later, 
Calhoun,  at  his  home  at  Fort  Hill,  finished  his  "Exposition," 
enunciating  the  principles  of  Nullification,  which  the  com 
mittee  of  seven  of  the  State  Legislature  presented  as  its  owyr 
During  the  summer,  politicians  made  numerous  pilgrimages 
to  Fort  Hill  for  conferences,  but  not  the  scratch  of  a  pen  re 
mains  to  indicate  the  character  of  the  discussions.    Calhoun 
was  still  "under  cover."    He  was  about  to  enter  upon  his 
second  term  in  the  Vice-Presidency,  and  his  friends  were 

1  Blair,  as  quoted  by  Buell. 

2  See  Houston's  Nullification  in  South  Carolina,  27-28.  »  Ibid.,  70. 


254    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

looking  forward  to  the  Presidency  in  1832.  The  world  was  to 
wait  awhile  for  the  openly  avowed  views  of  the  Master. 

With  the  publication  of  the  "Exposition,"  the  battle 
royal  began,  Cavalier  against  Cavalier,  the  Union  cause 
brilliantly  led  by  the  elegant  Joel  R.  Poinsett.  In  the  early 
stages  of  the  fight  the  Nullifiers  did  not  scruple  to  represent 
Jackson  as  friendly  to  their  cause.  "I  had  supposed,"  wrote 
Jackson,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  Poinsett,  "that  every  one 
acquainted  with  me  knew  that  I  was  opposed  to  the  Nulli 
fying  doctrine,  and  my  toast  at  the  Jefferson  dinner  was 
sufficient  evidence  of  that  fact."  *  Having  no  reason,  after 
that,  to  doubt  Jackson's  position,  the  Unionists  invited 
Jackson  to  attend  one  of  their  public  dinners,  and  he  sent  a 
letter  settling  beyond  all  possibility  of  dispute  his  position 
on  Nullification.  The  Nullifiers,  dining  at  a  rival  banquet, 
.and  learning  of  the  reading  of  the  Jackson  letter,  reminded 
"the  writer  that  "old  Waxhaw  still  stands  where  Jackson 
left  it,  and  the  old  stock  of  '76  has  not  run  out."  After 
that  the  drama  hurried  to  a  climax.  The  tariff  of  1832  was 
but  oil  on  the  flames.  The  fight  was  carried  to  the  polls 
and  Nullification  won  by  a  majority  of  6000  out  of  40,000 
votes  cast. 

The  most  portentous  feature  of  the  campaign  was  the 
appearance  in  August  of  Calhoun's  famous  letter  to  Hamil 
ton,  decisively  accepting  as  his  own,  and  urging  upon  his  peo 
ple,  the  doctrine  of  Nullification.  It  was  intended  and  timed 
to  serve  the  purposes  of  the  campaign.  Unhappily  Calhoun 
must  ever  remain  more  or  less  a  steel  engraving.  His  private 
life  was  carefully  screened.  Jefferson  prowling  among  the 
brickmasons  at  the  University,  Jackson  with  his  clay  pipe 
on  the  veranda  of  the  Hermitage,  Webster  among  his  cattle 
at  Marshfield,  Clay  meditating  speeches  under  the  trees  at 
Ashland,  are  possible  of  contact  by  future  generations,  but 
Calhoun  at  Fort  Hill  seems  hopelessly  remote  and  cannot  be 

1  StillS's  Life  and  Services  of  Joel  R.  Poinsett. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         255 

visualized.  He  stalks  upon  the  stage,  a  dramatic  and  im 
pressive  figure,  and  plays  his  public  part,  but  no  one  is  ad 
mitted  to  the  dressing-room.  Thus  all  we  know  of  the  occa 
sion  of  the  preparation  of  t.hftjanrimis  Iptfpr  wTnVh  Wa-mf* 
thejVJagna  Carta  of  the  Nullifiers,  is  told  in  the  letter  itself.1 
The  events  of  that  summer  and  early  autumn  were  intimately 
known  to  Jackson  as  he  walked  the  grounds  of  the  Hermit 
age,  and  lingered  mournfully  about  the  tomb  of  his  beloved 
Rachel.  In  the  spring  of  1830  the  brilliant  Poinsett,  fresh 
from  his  mission  to  Mexico,  had  been  shocked,  on  his  return 
to  the  drawing-rooms  of  Charleston,  to  find  sedition  poured 
with  the  tea,  and  had  hurried  to  Washington  to  be  closeted 
with  Jackson  at  the  White  House.  Before  he  emerged,  he  had 
been  designated  by  the  President  as  his  personal  ambassador 
in  South  Carolina,2  and  after  calling  upon  Adams,  in  retire 
ment,  to  tell  him  of  his  hopes  and  fears,3  he  made  all  haste 
home  to  combat,  inch  by  inch,  the  growing  madness,  and 
prepared,  if  need  be,  to  die  with  a  musket  in  his  hands.  Dur 
ing  the  intervening  three  years  his  confidential  reports  had 
kept  Jackson  in  close  touch  with  all  the  movements  of  the 
enemy,  and  the  grim  old  warrior,  reentering  the  White  House 
on  his  return  from  Tennessee,  entertained  no  illusions  as  to 
what  he  faced. 

Three  days  after  Jackson  reached  Washington,  the  South 
Carolina  Legislature  fixed  November  3d  as  the  date  for  the 
Nullification  Convention.  Silently,  but  sternly,  soldier- wise, 
the  President  was  clearing  the  decks  for  action.  The  day  he 
left  the  Hermitage  the  Collector  of  Customs  in  Charleston 
received  instructions  as  to  his  course;  on  reaching  the  capital, 
the  commander  in  charge  of  troops  there  was  warned  of  pos 
sible  attempts  to  seize  the  forts;  to  his  apprehensive  friends 
he  was  sending  reassuring  messages.  "I  am  well  advised  as 

1  For  this  letter  in  full  see  Calhoun's  Works,  or  Jenkins's  Life  ofCalhoun,  195-232. 

2  Poinsett's  letter  to  Jackson,  Oct.  23,  1830,  Stille's  Life  of  Poinsett. 
8  Adams's  Memoirs,  May  13,  1830. 


256    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

to  the  views  and  proceedings  of  the  leading  Nullifiers,"  he 
wrote  Hamilton  on  November  2d.  "We  are  wide  awake  here. 
THE  UNION  WILL  BE  PRESERVED;  REST  ASSURED  OF  THAT."1 
Five  days  later,  Cass  was  ordering  additional  troops  to  Fort 
Moultrie,  and  Jackson  was  dispatching  a  secret  emissary  to 
Charleston,  with  instructions  to  communicate  with  Poinsett, 
and  to  report  upon  the  conditions  of  the  forts  and  the  lengths 
to  which  the  Nullifiers  might  go.2  The  day  preceding  the 
meeting  of  the  Nullification  Convention,  Cass  ordered  Gen 
eral  Scott  to  Charleston,  with  minute  instructions.3  With 
Scott  hurrying  to  South  Carolina,  the  convention  met,  the 
Nullification  Ordinance  was  passed,  and  February  1st  was  set 
as  the  day  for  it  to  go  into  operation.  Three  days  after  the 
convention  adjourned,  the  Legislature  met  and  passed  laws 
to  put  the  ordinance  into  effect.  The  Unionist  Convention 
immediately  met,  denounced  Nullification,  and  began  to 
organize  their  forces  for  a  possible  armed  conflict. 

Meanwhile  Scott  had  performed  his  mission  with  a  dis 
cretion  and  sound  judgment  which  called  forth  the  commen 
dation  of  Jackson.4  Five  days  before  Congress  met,  five 
thousand  stand  of  muskets  with  equipment  had  been  ordered 
to  Castle  Pinckney,  and  a  sloop  of  war  with  smaller  vessels 
were  on  their  way  to  Charleston  Harbor.5  "The  Union 
must  be  preserved,  and  its  laws  duly  executed,  but  BY  PROPER 
MEANS,"  wrote  the  President  to  Poinsett. 

Thus,  in  this  real  crisis,  the  "law,"  the  "Constitution," 
and  "public  opinion"  were  uppermost  in  the  mind  of  the 
man  generally  described  as  reckless  in  the  use  of  power. 
Long  after  the  event,  but  while  the  contest  was  still  on,  he 
wrote  to  Poinsett  of  his  regret  at  the  failure  of  the  Unionist 
Convention  to  memorialize  Congress  "  to  extend  to  you  the 
guarantees  of  the  Constitution,  of  a  republican  form  of  gov- 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  247. 

a  George  Breathitt,  brother  of  the  Governor  of  Kentucky. 

*  Smith's  Life  of  Cass,  269-71.  4  Cass  to  Scott,  Smith's  Life  of  Cass. 

6  Jackson  to  Poinsett,  Stille's  Life  of  Poinsett. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         257 

ernment,  stating  the  actual  despotism  which  now  controls 
the  State."  This,  he  explained,  "would  have  placed  your  sit 
uation  before  the  whole  nation,  and  filled  the  heart  of  every 
true  lover  of  his  country  and  its  liberties  with  indignation." 1 
While  at  work  on  his  Proclamation,  he  wrote  Hamilton  in 
New  York,  urging  that  public  opinion  assert  itself  in  an  un 
mistakable  manner.  "The  crisis  must  be,  and  AS  FAR  AS  MY 

CONSTITUTIONAL  AND  LEGAL  POWERS  AUTHORIZE,  will  be,  met 

with  energy  and  firmness.   HENCE  THE  PROPRIETY  OF  THE 

PUBLIC   VOICE   BEING   HEARD;  —  AND   IT   OUGHT    NOW    TO   BE 

SPOKEN  IN  A  VOICE  OF  THUNDER."  2  Thus,  when  the  gavel 
fell  on  the  opening  of  the  Congress,  Jackson  had  the  situa 
tion  well  in  hand,  had  perfected  his  plans  for  vigorous  action 
within  the  limits  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  but  still 
hoped,  through  the  pressure  of  public  opinion  and  the  re 
turning  good  sense  of  the  Carolinians,  it  would  be  unneces 
sary  to  resort  to  force. 

n 

ON  the  opening  day  of  the  Congress  the  great  Carolinian 
was  not  in  his  Senate  seat,  to  which  he  had  been  immediately 
elected  on  his  resignation  from  the  Vice-Presidency,  but 
public  interest'  centered  in  it,  nevertheless.  The  Jackson 
Message  was  awaited  with  keen  anxiety.  In  its  recommen 
dation  of  a  reduction  of  the  tariff  was  easily  recognized  a 
conciliatory  gesture  toward  the  South  Carolinians.  Even 
his  discussion  of  the  crisis  was  temperate  and  unprovocative. 
No  one  listening  to  the  Message  could  have  had  the  slightest 
notion  of  what  was  taking  place  at  that  very  hour  in  Jack 
son's  workroom  in  the  White  House. 

Even  before  the  Congress  met,  Edward  Livingston  was  at 
work  preparing  the  Proclamation  which  was  to  thrill  the 
country  like  a  bugle  blast,  perpetuate  the  memory  of  Jack- 

1  Letter  to  Poinsett,  Feb.  7,  1833.  Life  of  Poinsett. 

2  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  248. 


258    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

son,  and  reflect  glory  on  himself.  It  was  no  mere  accident 
which  led  to  the  selection  of  the  Secretary  of  State  for  this 
task.  His  views  on  the  integrity  and  perpetuity  of  the  Union 
were  intimately  known  to  his  chief;  and  it  was  a  duty  upon 
which  Livingston  could  enter  with  all  his  heart.  But  the  first 
draft  of  the  Proclamation  was  written  by  Jackson  in  a  frenzy 
of  composition,  so  hurriedly  that  he  scattered  the  pages  over 
the  table  to  let  them  dry.  The  general  tenor  of  the  document 
was  therefore  his.  If  the  wording  was  Livingston's,  the  doc 
ument  breathed  the  soul  of  Andrew  Jackson.  During  the 
period  of  its  preparation,  Jackson  was  in  constant  touch. 
He  was  thinking  of  nothing  else.  Thus,  on  the  day  his  Mes 
sage  was  read  to  Congress,  the  iron  man  was  meditating  his 
appeal  to  public  opinion.  It  was  almost  midnight.  In  his 
room  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  mansion,  he  sat  before 
the  fireplace  smoking  his  pipe  —  thinking.  Bitter  as  he  was 
against  Calhoun  and  the  leaders  whom  he  felt  had  seduced 
the  people  of  his  native  State,  he  felt  an  affection  for  the  con 
fused  masses  who  had  been  deluded;  and,  while  prepared, 
if  need  be,  to  strike  with  the  military  arm  of  the  Government, 
he  passionately  hoped  that  this  would  not  become  necessary. 
Going  over  to  the  table  on  which  always  stood  the  picture 
of  his  Rachel,  and  the  Bible  to  which  she  had  been  devoted, 
he  wrote  a  conclusion  to  the  Proclamation  in  the  nature  of  a 
touching  appeal  to  the  patriotic  memories  of  the  South  Caro 
linians.  Then  he  wrote  to  Livingston:  "I  submit  the  above 
as  the  conclusion  of  the  Proclamation  for  your  amendment 
and  revision.  Let  it  receive  your  best  flight  of  eloquence,  to 
strike  to  the  heart,  and  speak  to  the  feelings  of  my  deluded 
countrymen  of  South  Carolina." 

Three  days  later,  the  night  again  found  Jackson  obsessed 
with  the  preparation  of  the  Proclamation.  Livingston,  in 
his  writing,  was  sending  it  as  he  proceeded  to  the  White 
House,  where  Major  Donelson,  the  private  secretary,  was 
engaged  in  copying  it  for  the  printer.  At  four  o'clock  in  the 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION        259 

afternoon  the  Secretary  of  State  had  sent  a  number  of  sheets, 
and  Donelson  had  finished  copying  and  was  waiting  for 
more.  Jackson  was  impatient  of  the  delay.  The  Message 
having  gone  forth,  he  thought  it  important  that  it  should  be 
followed  immediately  by  the  Proclamation  for  the  effect  on 
South  Carolina.  Again  he  wrote  to  Livingston  explaining 
the  reason  for  his  anxiety.  The  Secretary  would  therefore 
please  send  over  at  once,  "sealed,  by  the  bearer,"  such  sheets 
as  were  completed,  and  the  harassed  Livingston  complied. 
Under  these  conditions  of  pressure  the  immortal  document 
was  written.1 

On  the  day  Jackson  gave  this  Proclamation  to  the  Nation 
he  made  his  last  appeal.  A  letter  written  to  Poinsett  that 
day  discloses  a  determination  to  move  sternly  and  unhesi 
tatingly  to  what  he  conceived  to  be  his  solemn  duty.  This 
letter  breathed  the  spirit  of  the  battle-field.  The  act  of  the 
Nullifiers  was  sheer  treason.  He  had  been  assured  that  he 
would  be  sustained  by  Congress.  "I  will  meet  it  [treason]  at 
the  threshold,  and  have  the  leaders  arrested  and  arraigned 
for  treason,"  he  wrote.  He  was  only  waiting  for  the  Acts 
of  the  Legislature  "to  make  a  communication  to  Congress, 
ask  the  means  necessary  to  carry  my  Proclamation  into 
complete  effect,  and  by  an  exemplary  punishment  of  those 
leaders  for  treason  so  unprovoked,  put  down  this  rebellion, 
and  strengthen  our  Government  both  at  home  and  abroad." 
The  Unionists  of  South  Carolina  need  not  fear.  In  forty 
days  he  could  have  50,000  men  in  the  State,  in  forty  more 
another  50,000.  "How  impotent,"  he  wrote,  "the  threats  of 
resistance  with  only  a  population  of  250,000  whites,  and  nearly 
double  that  in  blacks,  with  our  ships  in  the"  port  to  aid  in  the 
execution  of  the  laws!"  2  ^-j 

Thus  hoping  that  necessity  would  not  compel  him  to  send/ 

1  These  letters,  in  possession  of  the  Livingston  family,  were  used  by  Hunt  in  his 
Life  of  Livingston. 

2  Stille's  Life  of  Poinsett. 


260    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

armed  forces,  determined  to  meet  the  issue,  however,  as  it 
might  present  itself,  careful  to  observe  all  the  constitutional 
•and  legal  limitations  of  his  power,  enraged  to  fury  against 
ie  leaders  and  eager  to  lay  his  hands  on  Calhoun,  he  gave  the 
'country  the  Proclamation  which  instantly  wiped  out  party 
lines  with  most,  and  rallied  the  patriotic  forces  of  the  Union 
to^his  support. 

m 

AT  the  time  of  the  writing  of  the  Proclamation,  Andrew 
Jackson  was  sixty-six,  and  Edward  Livingston  sixty-nine 
years  old,  but  it  breathes  the  fire,  the  passion,  the  enthusi 
asm,  and  the  eloquence  of  impetuous  youth.  As  an  oration, 
it  was  to  be  treasured  as  a  masterpiece;  as  a  public  document, 
it  has  taken  its  place  alongside  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  as  one  of  the  greatest  pronouncements  of  American  his 
tory.  Its  publication  appealed  to  the  Unionists  of  the  country 
like  a  charge  on  the  battle-field.  To  no  one  did  it  give 
keener  pleasure  than  to  Webster,  who  read  it  in  New  Jersey 
on  his  way  to  the  capital.  In  Philadelphia  he  met  Clay,  and 
a  friend  of  the  latter  explained  Clay's  plan  of  concessions  to 
the  Nullifiers  through  a  new  tariff  of  gradual  reductions. 
The  martial  call  of  Jackson  aroused  the  fighting  blood  within 
Webster,  and  Clay's  game  of  politics  repelled  him.  He  has 
tened  to  Washington  determined  to  give  his  best  blows  for 
Jackson  and  the  Administration.1 

John  Marshall,  in  gloomy  mood,  found  in  the  Proclamation 
the  elixir  for  his  pessimism.2  Justice  Story,  despite  his  deep- 
seated  prejudice,  could  not  withhold  his  commendation, 
coupled  with  an  expression  of  strange  surprise.  "The  Presi 
dent's  Proclamation  is  excellent,"  he  wrote,  "and  contains 
the  true  principles  of  the  Constitution;  but  will  he  stand  to 
it?  Will  he  not  surrender  all  to  the  guidance  of  Virginia?"8 

1  Lodge's  Life  of  Webster,  208.  a  Beveridge's  John  Marshall,  iv,  570-73. 

8  Letter  to  Richard  Peters,  Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  n,  113. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         261 

Adams  described  it  as  a  "blister  plaster."  1  Among  all  his 
long-time  political  opponents,  Clay  alone  withheld  enthusi 
astic  commendation,  with  the  comment  that,  "although 
there  are  some  good  things  in  it,  there  are  some  entirely 
too  ultra  for  me."  In  truth,  the  man  who  would  "rather 
be  right  than  President"  seized  eagerly  upon  the  President's 
patriotic  position  to  curry  favor  with  the  extreme  State- 
Rights  men  of  the  South. 

Thus  we  soon  enter  upon  the  party  phase  of  the  fight.  The 
effect  upon  some  of  Jackson's  State-Rights  supporters  was 
one  of  painful  embarrassment.  While  the  average  Virginian 
had  no  sympathy  with  Nullification,  he  subscribed  to  the 
State-Rights  doctrine  and  to  the  right  of  secession.  The  very 
point  on  which  Clay  cunningly  and  unscrupulously  pounced 
was  therefore  the  one  which  caused  the  greatest  consterna 
tion  among  the  Administration  Democrats  of  the  Old  Do 
minion.  It  was  to  them  that  Clay  was  making  his  appeal. 
The  Virginia  Assembly,  which  had  just  unanimously  elected 
W.  C.  Rives,  a  Jacksonian,  to  the  Senate,  instantly  reversed 
itself  by  electing  John  Tyler,  an  enemy,  to  that  body,  to 
succeed  Tazewell,  who  had  resigned.  W.  S.  Archer,  writing 
to  Cambreleng  in  New  York,  declared  that  it  would  be  ridic 
ulous  to  expect  Virginia  to  endorse  the  Proclamation,2  and 
Governor  Floyd,  who  had  received  South  Carolina's  vote  in 
the  recent  election,  rejoiced  to  find  "the  poor  unworthy  dogs, 
Ritchie,  Van  Buren  &  Co.  deserted."  3  To  the  momentarily 
embarrassed  Ritchie,  his  cleverness  pointed  a  way  out. 
Penning  a  mild  objection  to  some  of  the  doctrinal  points,  he 
accepted  it  as  primarily  a  denunciation  of  Nullification,  and, 
as  such,  gave  it  the  support  of  his  great  prestige  and  pen.4 

Such  was  the  position  of  many  others  among  the  Southern 
leaders  of  the  Jackson  party,  but  Ritchie  found  himself  in  a 
minority.  John  Tyler,  never  friendly  to  Jackson,  now  seized 

1  Memoirs,  Dec.  25,  1832. 

2  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie,  152.  8  Ibid.  «  Ibid.,  153. 


262    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

upon  the  Proclamation  as  a  pretext  for  pushing  to  the  head 
of  the  Opposition.  Writing  heatedly  to  Tazewell  of  the  "ser 
vility"  to  party  of  many  Southern  statesmen  supporting  the 
President,  he  drew  a  gloomy  picture  of  the  future.  The  Proc 
lamation,  he  thought,  had  "swept  away  all  the  barriers  of 
the  Constitution,"  had  established  "a  consolidated  military 
despotism."  He  "  trembled "  for  South  Carolina.  "The  war 
cry  is  up  —  rely  upon  it,"  he  wrote.  "The  boast  is  that  the 
President  by  stamping  like  another  Pompey  on  the  earth 
can  raise  a  hundred  thousand  men."  l 

It  is  significant  of  Whig  hopes,  that,  when  Tyler  wrote  and 
Ritchie  was  supporting  the  President,  John  Hampden  Pleas- 
ants,  the  editor  of  the  "Richmond  Whig,"  and  an  intimate 
of  Clay's,  was  denouncing  the  principles  enunciated  by 
Jackson  and  Livingston.2  Resolutions  were  adopted  by  the 
Legislature  denouncing  both  Nullification  and  the  Proc 
lamation. 

Nor  was  Jackson  indifferent  to  the  attitude  Virginia  might 
assume.  He  planned  to  isolate  South  Carolina,  and  he  feared 
an  alliance  with  Virginia  more  than  with  any  other  State. 
Wishing  to  reach  the  Virginians  as  speedily  as  possible,  he 
called  upon  Lewis  Cass  to  prepare  a  letter  in  the  form  of  an 
appeal  to  be  published  in  Ritchie's  "Richmond  Enquirer." 
Within  a  few  days  after  the  appearance  of  the  Proclamation, 
Virginians  were  reading  a  letter  described  by  Ritchie  as  from 
"one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  country."  Making  no  defense 
of  the  tariff,  but  pointing  out  the  impossibility  of  the  radical 
changes  demanded  being  made  within  the  limited  time  al 
lowed  by  the  Carolina  politicians,  he  suggested  that  "Virginia 
might  interpose  most  efficaciously,  and  add  another  leaf  to 
the  wreath  which  adorns  her  civic  chaplet,"  if  her  Legislature 
would  appoint  a  committee  to  proceed  to  South  Carolina 
and  "entreat  her  convention  ...  to  recall  its  late  steps,  and 
at  all  events  to  delay  her  final  action  till  another  trial  is  made 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  418.  2  Ibid.,  451. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         263 

to  reduce  the  tariff."  1  This  was  to  lead,  a  little  later,  to  the 
adoption  of  a  similar  plan. 

Strange  as  it  may  now  seem,  the  position  of  Virginia  pre 
vented  New  York  from  endorsing  the  Proclamation  unquali 
fiedly,  through  her  Legislature  —  and  thereon  hangs  a  tale 
of  the  political  cunning  of  Martin  Van  Buren.  In  the  Empire 
State  the  Proclamation  had  been  received  with  enthusiasm. 
Even  so  bitter  a  partisan  as  Philip  Hone  poured  forth  his 
admiration  and  commendation  on  the  pages  of  his  diary. 
"As  a  composition,  it  is  splendid,"  he  wrote,  "and  will  take 
its  place  in  the  archives  of  our  country,  and  dwell  in  the 
memory  of  our  citizens  alongside  of  the  Farewell  Address. 
...  I  think  Jackson's  election  may  save  the  Union.  If  he  is 
sincere  in  his  Proclamation,  he  will  put  down  this  rebellion. 
Mr.  Clay,  pursuing  the  same  measures,  would  not  have  been 
equally  successful."  2  We  have  seen,  in  Jackson's  letter  to 
Hamilton,  his  desire  that  every  agency  of  publicity  should  be 
employed  to  focus  the  sentiment  against  Nullification.  The 
New  York  Legislature  being  then  in  session,  Hamilton  wrote 
leading  men  in  Albany  urging  the  passage  of  a  commendatory 
resolution.  In  the  absence  of  definite  encouragement,  he  then 
wrote  Van  Buren,  his  political  and  personal  friend,  suggest 
ing  that  he  bring  pressure  to  bear  upon  his  friends  in  the 
Assembly.  The  letter  was  returned,  opened,  but  unanswered, 
and  Hamilton  lost  no  time  in  writing  of  the  incident  to  Jack 
son,  with  the  comment  that  "this  unfriendly,  nay  offensive 
course,  resulted  from  Van  Buren's  fear  of  offending  the  dom 
inant  political  party  in  Virginia."  3 

That  Van  Buren  was  deeply  embarrassed  by  the  doctrinal 
features  of  the  Proclamation,  if  not  by  the  possible  effect 
upon  his  candidacy  for  the  Presidency  and  his  popularity 
among  the  Virginia  politicians,  has  been  admitted  and  ex 
plained  by  himself.4  The  document  was  delivered  to  him  at 

1  Richmond  Enquirer,  Dec.  13,  1832.  2  Diary,  Dec.  12,  1832. 

3  Hamilton's  Reminiscences.  250.  *  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  545-53. 


264    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  home  of  a  friend  in  Albany  as  the  party  was  in  the  act  of 
going  in  to  dinner.  Instantly  his  practiced  eye  caught  the 
phrasing  that  would  arouse  the  ire  of  the  State-Rights  ele 
ment.  The  Whigs  in  Albany  were  just  as  keen,  and  pro 
ceeded,  with  celerity,  to  take  advantage.  William  H.  Seward 
immediately  offered  a  resolution  in  the  State  Senate  to  the 
effect  that  "the  President  of  the  United  States  .  .  .  had  ad 
vanced  the  true  principles  upon  which  only  the  Constitution 
can  be  maintained  and  defended."  With  Van  Buren  on  the 
ground,  and  with  the  Democrats  in  the  majority,  the  Whigs 
hoped,  not  without  reason,  either  to  force  the  Jacksonians  to 
accept  the  conclusions  of  the  resolution,  or  to  a  rejection  of 
the  endorsement,  which  would  be  interpreted  as  a  rupture 
of  the  relations  of  the  President  and  Vice-President.  The 
Democrats  did  neither  —  they  postponed  action.  It  was 
probably  at  this  juncture  that  Van  Buren  received  the  letter 
from  Hamilton  and  returned  it  unanswered.  Realizing,  how 
ever,  the  fatality  of  non-action,  Van  Buren  prepared  a  reso 
lution,  together  with  an  elaborate  and  laborious  report, 
taking  issue  with  "the  history  given  by  the  President  of  the 
formation  of  our  Government,"  and  calculated  to  satisfy 
the  State-Rights  men  of  Virginia.  These  were  adopted,  and 
sent  to  the  White  House  with  an  explanation.  Just  what 
Jackson  thought  of  it  will  never  be  known,  for  he  filed  the 
letter  without  a  word  of  comment  to  his  secretary,  in  whose 
presence  it  was  read.1  Nor  was  the  subject  ever  mentioned 
in  future  conversations  between  the  two  leaders.2  That  a 
copy  was  also  sent  to  Rives  and  Ritchie  in  Virginia  we  may 
be  sure. 

Such  were  the  cross-currents  of  party  politics  at  the  time, 
Jackson  playing  a  bold  and  straight  game,  thinking  solely 
of  the  Union,  and  Clay  and  Van  Buren,  rival  candidates  for 
the  Presidency,  pussyfooting  and  conciliating  on  a  vital  issue. 

1  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  553. 

1  For  Van  Buren's  report,  see  Autobiography,  550-52. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         265 

Meanwhile  what  was  the  effect  in  South  Carolina?  Senator 
Hayne,  now  Governor,  met  the  challenge  of  the  President  in. 
an  able  document,  bitter  in  its  defiance,  which  fired  the  fight 
ing  blood  of  the  Nullifiers.  Preston  described  it  as  "a  docu 
ment  whose  elegance  of  diction,  elaborate  and  conclusive 
argument,  just  and  clear  constitutional  exposition,  confuted 
all  the  show  of  argument  of  the  President's  Proclamation."  l 
Outside  of  Nullification  circles,  the  bitterness  of  this  counter 
blast  made  a  deep  impression.  Adams  found  it  "full  of  bitter 
words,"  and,  after  reading  it,  sent  it  to  James  K.  Polk,  the 
Jackson  leader  in  the  House.2  The  Hayne  defiance  was 
echoed  by  the  Nullifiers.  The  eloquent  Preston,  addressing  a 
mass  meeting  in  Charleston,  declared  that  "there  are  16,000 
back  countrymen  with  arms  in  their  hands  and  cockades 
in  their  hats,  ready  to  march  to  our  city  at  a  moment's 
warning  to  defend  us.  ...  I  will  pour  down  a  torrent  of  volun 
teers  that  will  sweep  the  myrmidons  of  the  tyrant  from  the 
soil  of  Carolina."  3  But  Calhoun  was  disappointed  with  the 
Proclamation.  He  had  hoped  for  an  intemperate,  ranting  de 
nunciation  of  the  Carolinians  that  would  heat  their  blood  and 
put  them  on  the  march.  The  sober  dignity  of  the  document 
and  its  impressive  appeal  to  the  better  natures  of  the  people 
interfered  with  his  plans. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  Carolinians  were 
seething  with  wrath.  The  impassioned  McDuffie,  according 
to  Adams,  "could  not  contain  himself,"  and  declared  that 
"if  Congress  should  approve  the  principles  of  that  proclama 
tion,  the  liberties  of  the  country  were  gone  forever."  Where 
upon  Archer  rose  to  suggest  that  a  communication  "would 
very  shortly  be  received  upon  which  the  gentleman  would 
have  an  opportunity  to  express  his  opinion  without  re 
straint."  4 

1  Jervey's  Robert  Y.  Hayne.  2  Memoirs,  Dec.  26,  1832. 

8  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress. 
4  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  14,  1832. 


266    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

IV 

THE  excitement  over  the  Proclamation  found  Calhoun  re 
mote  from  the  turmoil  and  in  the  midst  of  his  family  at  Fort 
Hill.  There  he  lingered  to  enjoy  the  Christmas  festivities, 
and  the  day  following  he  started  to  Washington  to  take  his 
place  in  the  Senate.  There  was  much  drama  in  this  winter 
journey  to  the  capital.  One  of  his  biographers  has  compared 
it  to  "that  of  Luther  to  attend  the  diet  of  Worms."  1  The 
public  was  convinced  of  the  temper  of  Jackson  and  realized 
the  possibilities  when  the  lion  in  him  was  aroused.  To  some 
Calhoun's  journey  suggested  a  death  march.  Looked  upon 
as  the  prime  mover,  the  instigator,  the  leader  of  the  seditious 
movement,  many  thought  that  he  would  be  arrested  on  the 
charge  of  treason  before  he  crossed  the  Virginia  border.  In 
terest  in  his  progress  was  intense,  and  even  among  those  who 
abhorred  the  new  doctrine  there  was  no  little  sympathy  for 
the  grim,  impeccably  pure  statesman  who  had  the  courage 
to  beard  the  lion  in  his  den.  New  Year's  Day  found  him  at 
Raleigh,  where  he  rested.  Here  crowds  gathered  to  welcome, 
or  merely  to  observe  him,  and  a  public  dinner  was  offered 
him  by  his  admirers.  This  he  politely  declined.  There  was 
something  of  grandeur  in  the  dignity  of  his  demeanor.  As 
he  proceeded  from  town  to  town,  his  approach  was  announced 
and  elaborate  preparations  were  made  for  his  reception, 
for  both  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  were  devoted  to  State 
Rights,  and  not  a  few  of  their  citizens  sympathized  with 
the  Carolina  doctrine,  and  looked  upon  secession  as  an  in 
evitable  result  of  the  crisis.  Unlike  the  case  of  Burr,  noth 
ing  personally  sinister  clung  to  him.  His  worst  enemies  con 
ceded  his  honesty,  and  this  was  in  his  favor.  Mrs.  Bayard 
Smith,  echoing  the  sentiment  of  the  Washington  drawing- 
rooms,  found  herself  wondering,  on  Christmas  Day,  if  all  the 
"high  soarings"  of  "one  of  the  noblest  and  most  generous 

1  Jenkins,  246. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         267 

spirits"  were  to  end  "in  disappointment  or  humiliation  or 
in  blood."  *  That  this  friendly  atmosphere,  through  which 
he  moved,  was  reassuring  to  Calhoun,  we  may  assume  from 
his  letter  to  his  son  on  reaching  the  capital.  Here  he  found 
"things  better  than  anticipated"  and  that  it  was  beginning 
to  be  "felt  that  we  must  succeed." 

On  the  day  he  took  the  oath  and  his  seat  in  the  Senate, 
the  little  semi-circular  chamber  was  crowded  with  friends 
and  foes,  drawn  by  the  dramatic  features  of  the  situation. 
Tall,  erect,  his  face  sternly  set,  his  iron-gray  hair  brushed 
back,  he  walked  into  the  chamber  over  which  he  had  presided, 
slowly  and  .with  a  deliberation  which  seemed  as  studied  as 
that  of  an  actor  upon  the  stage.  When  he  took  his  seat,  some 
Senators  hastened  to  clasp  his  hand,  but  it  was  noticed  that 
others,  who  had  formerly  been  friendly,  held  back,  deterred 
perhaps  by  the  frown  of  the  White  House.  At  length  the 
great  scene  —  the  taking  of  the  oath.  This  he  did  in  a  rever 
ential  manner,  and  his  voice  was  serious  and  solemn  when 
he  swore  to  support  the  Constitution  which  Jackson  con 
tended  he  had  flagrantly  violated.2  The  leader  of  Nullifica 
tion  was  in  his  seat. 

V 

THE  day  after  Calhoun  started  on  his  journey  to  the  capital, 
the  VgrplanckTariff  Bill,  sanctioned  by  the  Administration, 
was  introduce5jn  the  House.  Thjs_ni£asurar&~was  thought, 
migfiTgcTa  long  way  toward  preventing  any  _accjesfiion  to  the 
ranks' of  the  Nullifiers  in_thatjtjvent  far  toward  meeting  the 
objectiojisjo  tEeTe genue  laws.  It  was  a  rather  radical  meas 
ure,  providing  for  the  immediate  reduction_j>l^Jium€rous 

uct^nsaTyear  later.  The  ^election 
forces^rallied  at  once  for  its  defeat.  Through  all  the  parlia- 
mentarydevices  of  delay,  Jackson,  keenly  watching  de 
velopments  through  the  reports  of  Lewis  and  Donelson,  was 

1  First  Forty  Years,  Dec.  25,  1832,  a  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress. 


268    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

convinced  that  the  Nullifiers  were  as  much  interested  in 
its  defeat  as  the  protectionists.  An  "insulting  and  irritating 
speech"  of  Wilde  of  Georgia  he  thought  "instigated  by  the 
Nullies,  who  wish  no  accommodation  of  the  tariff."  l  Long 
before  it  could  be  brought  to  a  vote,  it  had  been  hammered 
beyond  recognition  by  amendments  and  Jackson  had  lost 
interest  in  the  reduction  of  the  tariff,  rather  preferring  first 
to  whip  Nullification  without  any  preliminary  concessions. 

Meanwhile  Jackson  was  awaiting  developments  before 
submitting  his  Message  to  Congress  asking  additional  powers 
to  put  down  the  heresy.  Through  the  latter  part  of  Decem 
ber  and  the  early  part  of  January,  Hayne  was  making  open 
preparations  for  an  armed  resistance.  Poinsett,  reporting 
constantly,  had  abandoned  hope  of  "putting  down  Nullifi 
cation  by  moral  force,"  and  hoped  that  the  "vain  blustering 
of  these  mad-men"  would  not  influence  Congress  on  the 
tariff,  as  "such  a  concession  Nwould  confirm  the  power  and 
popularity  of  the  Nullifiers."  2  He  was  anxious  for  the  con 
test.  "Is  not  raising,  embodying,  and  marching  men  to  op 
pose  the  laws  of  the  United  States  an  overt  act  of  treason?" 
he  wrote  the  Unionist  Congressman  from  Charleston,  who 
still  hoped  that  the  crisis  could  be  passed  without  re 
course  to  the  Federal  army.3  Thus,  early  in  January,  Poin 
sett  was  anxious  to  have  Federal  troops  sent  into  the  State, 
while  other  Unionists  still  held  back.  In  this  controversy 
Jackson  agreed  with  the  conservatives  that  the  Unionists  of 
the  State  should  first  have  an  opportunity  to  demonstrate 
their  ability  to  handle  the  situation. 

On  January  16th,  Archer's  promise  to  McDuffie  was  ful 
filled,  when  Jackson  laid  all  the  facts  relative  to  the  crisis 
before  Congress  with  a  request  for  authority  to  abolish  or 
alter  certain  ports  of  entry,  and  to  use  the  army  to  protect 
the  officers  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  He  also  asked  for 

1  Still's  Life  of  Poinsett.  2  Letter  to  Jackson,  Still6's  Life  of  Poinsett. 

3  Poinsett  to  Drayton,  Stille's  Life  of  Poinsett. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         269 

the  revival  of  the  sixth  section  of  the  Act  of  March  3, 1815,  and 
for  a  provision  for  the  removal  to  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court,  without  copy  of  the  record,  of  any  suit  brought  in  the 
State  courts  against  any  individual  for  an  act  performed 
under  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  A  grim  touch  was  added 
in  the  request  for  authorization  for  marshals  to  make  pro 
vision  for  keeping  prisoners. 

Very  late  on  the  night  of  the  day  the  Message  was  sub 
mitted,  Jackson,  worn  out  and  wretched  from  a  bad  cold, 
sat  in  his  room  writing  to  Poinsett.  The  Message  had  been 
read.  Calhoun,  "agitated  and  confused,"  had  "let  off  a 
little  of  his  ire  "  against  the  President,  and  John  Forsyth  had 
replied  "with  great  dignity  and  firmness."  That  night  it 
seemed  to  Jackson  that  Calhoun  had  been  placed  "between 
Scylla  and  Charybdis,"  and  was  "reckless."  The  uncer 
tainty  of  negotiations  had  passed,  and  the  hour  for  action  — 
the  happy  hour  for  Jackson  —  had  struck.  The  conferences 
with  Drayton  were  over.  Poinsett,  at  the  front,  was  now  the 
man  of  the  hour.  The  moment  the  Nullifiers  were  "in  hos 
tile  array,"  this  fact  was  to  be  certified  to  Jackson  by  the 
attorney  for  the  district,  or  the  judge,  and  he  would  "forth 
with  order  the  leaders  arrested  and  prosecuted."  And  he 
added  in  his  note  to  Poinsett:  "We  will  strike  at  the  head 
and  demolish  the  monster  Nullification  and  secession  at  the 
threshold  by  the  power  of  the  law."  1 

Thus,  that  night,  the  fingers  of  Andrew  Jackson  were 
itching  for  the  throat  of  John  C.  Calhoun. 

Five  days  later,  Senator  Wilkins,  of  the  Judiciary  Com 
mittee,  presented  the  famous  "Force  Bill,"  and  one  of  the 
most  violent  debates  in  history  began.  On  the  following  day, 
Calhoun  submitted  a  set  of  resolutions  setting  forth  his  views 
of  the  constitutional  question  involved,  in  the  hope  of  thereby 
directing  the  debate  into  that  channel.  But  the  Senate  was 
in  no  temper  for  such  a  discussion  and  pushed  forward  to  the 

1  Letter  to  Poinsett,  Stille's  Life  of  Poinsett. 


270    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

debate  on  the  main  and  pressing  question.  The  Calhoun 
resolutions  were  speedily  tabled.  Wilkins  led  off  in  the 
debate,  and  others  followed,  one  on  the  heels  of  the  other, 
until  at  length  John  Tyler  took  the  floor  to  deliver  the  speech 
which,  after  that  of  Calhoun,  was  the  most  forceful  attack 
to  be  made  upon  the  measure.  Reading  his  speech  to-day 
one  wonders  how  the  Republic  outlived  the  Jackson  Ad 
ministrations.  Dire  calamity  was  predicted  as  a  result  of 
his  every  action.  He  saw  Carolinians  again  driven  "into  the 
morasses  where  Marion  and  Sumter  found  refuge,"  with  their 
cities  and  towns  leveled  to  the  dust,  and  their  daughters 
clothed  in  mourning,  with  "helpless  orphans"  made  of  their 
"rising  sons."  But,  he  continued,  "I  will  not  despair.  Rome 
had  her  Curtius,  Sparta  her  Leonidas,  and  Athens  her  band 
of  devoted  patriots;  and  shall  it  be  said  that  the  American 
Senate  contains  not  one  man  who  will  step  forward  to  rescue 
his  country  in  this,  her  moment  of  peril?  Although  that  man 
may  never  wear  an  earthly  crown  or  sway  an  earthly  scepter, 
eternal  fame  shall  weave  an  evergreen  around  his  brow,  and 
his  name  shall  rank  with  the  proudest  patriots  of  the  proud 
est  climes." 

With  the  closing  sentence,  Tyler  turned  significantly  to 
Henry  Clay,  who  sat  an  interested  spectator.  Throughout 
this  memorable  debate  he  was  to  remain  mute.  The  great 
orator  and  party  leader  was  making  sympathetic  gestures 
to  the  extreme  State-Rights  men  of  the  South.  Even  at  this 
time,  and  knowing  Tyler's  views,  he  was  writing  to  his  friend, 
Francis  Brooke:  "Will  he  [Tyler]  be  reflected?  We  feel  here 
some  solicitude  on  that  point,  being  convinced  that  under  all 
circumstances,  he  would  be  far  preferable  to  any  person  that 
could  be  sent."  1  And  such  was  his  partisan  hate  of  Jackson 
that  the  second  leader  of  the  party  Opposition,  John  M. 
Clayton,  in  speaking  in  support  of  the  Force  Bill,  could 
not  refrain  from  an  exhibition  of  boorishness  and  bigotry  in 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I.  460. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         271 

coupling  his  advocacy  of  the  Jackson  measure  with  a  sneer 
at  Jackson. 

"My  support  of  the  measure,"  he  said,  "is  predicated  on 
no  servile  submission  to  any  Executive  mandate,  on  no 
implicit  and  unlimited  faith  in  any  man.  ...  I  will  not  be 
deterred  from  the  adoption  of  this  measure  by  any  consider 
ation  of  the  source  from  which  it  has  emanated." 

Thus  did  Clayton  contribute  to  the  pleasure  of  the  Nulli- 
fiers  by  the  denunciation  of  the  man  who  stood  in  their  way, 
and  in  sneering  at  those  Southern  Democrats  who  stood 
squarely  behind  Jackson  despite  the  gibes  of  the  Calhoun 
followers  that  they  were  yielding  a  servile  submission. 

Meanwhile  Jackson's  supporters  were  giving  the  measure 
their  undivided  support,  and  none  of  them  more  heartily, 
and  none  so  ably,  as  Senators  from  the  South.  Senator  Felix 
Grundy  of  Tennessee,  able  lawyer,  seasoned  statesman,  re 
sourceful  parliamentarian,  took  charge  of  the  fight  on  the 
floor.  Rives  of  Virginia,  learned  constitutional  lawyer, 
scholarly,  polished,  heroically  sacrificed  a  seat  in  the  Senate 
to  stand  by  the  Union.  And  Forsyth  of  Georgia,  "the  great 
est  debater  of  his  time,"  affected  to  look  upon  the  Nullifica 
tion  doctrine  as  "the  double  distilled  essence  of  nonsense." 

As  the  fight  developed  and  the  certainty  of  defeat  grew 
upon  the  Nullifiers,  efforts  were  made  to  gain  time,  with  the 
Administration  forces  pressing  for  action.  Senator  Willie 
Mangum  of  North  Carolina,  brilliant,  and  sacrificing  a  great 
career  to  drink,  on  securing  the  floor  asked  for  an  adjourn 
ment  on  the  ground  of  indisposition.  Ordinarily  the  request 
would  have  been  granted.  But  Forsyth,  Grundy,  and  Wilkins 
were  instantly  on  their  feet  with  objections.  Calhoun,  point 
ing  out  that  Mangum  was  the  only  member  of  the  Judiciary 
Committee  opposed  to  the  bill,  begged  that  he  be  given  an 
opportunity  to  explain  his  position,  only  to  be  told,  none  too 
graciously,  by  Wilkins,  that  he  had  no  doubt  of  Mangum's 
capacity  to  speak  then.  When  Calhoun  reminded  him  of 


272    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Mangum's  plea  of  indisposition,  he  was  ignored.  At  this 
juncture,  Webster,  who  had  been  silent,  suggested  that 
Mangum  could  easily  speak  on  another  day  and  the  debate 
proceed.  Whereupon  Senator  King  of  Alabama  made  a 
transparent  effort  to  draw  Webster's  speech  at  once.  The 
New  England  orator  significantly  replied  that  "the  gentle 
man  from  Massachusetts  fully  understands  the  gentleman 
from  Alabama;  but  he  has  no  disposition  to  address  the 
Senate  at  present,  nor,  under  existing  circumstances,  at  any 
other  time,  on  the  subject  of  this  bill."  This  was  taken  as 
indicating  Webster's  conviction  that  up  to  that  time  the 
advocates  of  the  bill  needed  no  reinforcements,  and  that  he 
would  reserve  himself  for  Calhoun. 

It  was  during  these  proceedings  that  an  exchange  occurred 
between  Poindexter  and  Grundy  which  illustrates  the  hair- 
trigger  conditions  in  Carolina.  A  rumor  had  just  spread 
through  the  chamber  that  Jackson  had  ordered  a  portion  of 
the  fleet  to  occupy  Charleston  Harbor,  and  had  sent  instruc 
tions  to  the  military  commander  in  Charleston,  and  Poindex 
ter  immediately  offered  a  resolution  calling  upon  the  Presi 
dent  for  information  as  to  his  actions  and  intentions.  Grundy 
calmly,  if  provokingly,  suggested  that  perhaps  some  very  re 
spectable  gentlemen  of  Charleston  had  furnished  the  President 
with  information  on  which  the  secret  orders  had  been  is 
sued,  and  that  Poindexter  would  surely  not  ask  the  names 
of  the  gentlemen  and  all  the  circumstances  of  the  disclosure. 

"All  —  all  —  the  whole  of  them!"  cried  Poindexter. 

"But  would  not  such  disclosures  lead  to  the  immediate 
shedding  of  blood?"  Grundy  inquired. 

"I  care  not  if  it  does!"  shouted  the  excited  Mississippian. 
"Let  us  have  the  information  no  matter  what  the  circum 
stances!" 

Grundy  smilingly  took  his  seat. 

Thus  the  debate  dragged  on  —  the  two  greatest  figures 
still  silent. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         273 

VI 

MEANWHILE,  as  the  debate  proceeded,  Jackson  was  watch 
ing  South  Carolina  and  making  all  his  preparations.  On 
January  24th,  he  wrote  Poinsett  that  the  Force  Bill  debate 
was  about  to  begin,  that  he  had  done  his  duty,  and  if  Con 
gress  failed  to  act,  and  he  should  be  informed  of  the  assem 
blage  of  an  armed  force,  he  stood  ready  for  drastic  measures.1 
There  is  something  of  the  heroic  mingled  with  pathos  in  the 
picture  this  letter  presents  of  Jackson  at  this  time.  It  was 
late  at  night.  The  House  sat  late.  He  had  not  heard  since 
seven  o'clock.  "My  eyes  grow  dim." 

Two  hours  later  he  ordered  General  Scott  to  Charleston 
to  repel  by  force  any  attempt  to  seize  the  forts.2  Holding  his 
rage  in  check,  measuring  every  step  by  his  constitutional 
and  legal  powers,  determined  to  do  nothing  rashly  to  precip 
itate  bloodshed,  Jackson  held  himself  in  readiness,  as  the 
debate  on  the  Force  Bill  proceeded,  to  meet  any  eventuality 
that  might  arise.3  But  Jackson  and  the  Administration  were 
not  at  all  satisfied  with  the  progress  of  the  debate.  None  of 
the  trio  of  genius,  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun,  had  yet  par 
ticipated.  It  would  be  too  much  to  expect  that  Clay  would 
speak  on  behalf  of  any  Jackson  measure,  and  it  was  certain 
that  Calhoun  would  deliver  one  of  his  characteristically  pow 
erful  arguments  against  the  bill.  There  was  just  one  man 
strong  enough  to  meet  the  impact  of  that  argument,  and  that 
was  Webster.  It  was  a  reasonable  hope  that  he  would  promi 
nently  support  the  measure  involving  the  principles  he  had 
made  his  own.  Among  his  intimates,  such  as  Story,  it  was 
expected  that  he  would  enter  at  the  psychological  moment, 
but  the  great  orator  kept  his  own  counsels,  and  during  the 
early  part  of  the  debate  was  absent  from  the  Senate  Cham- 


1  Stilte's  Life  of  Poinsett. 

2  Instructions  in  letter  of  Cass  to  Scott,  Smith's  Life  of  Cass. 
8  Jackson  to  Poinsett,  Feb.  7.  1833,  Stille's  Life  of  Poinsett. 


274    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

her  on  other  engagements.  As  Calhoun  prepared  his  heavy 
artillery  for  action,  the  apprehension  of  Jackson  and  his 
supporters  increased,  and  every  effort  was  made,  at  first 
through  Webster's  friends,  to  learn  his  intentions.1  Then, 
one  day,  a  carriage  halted  before  the  lodgings  of  Webster,  and 
the  tall  figure  of  Livingston  emerged  and  entered  the  house. 
It  was  not  a  half-hearted  welcome  to  the  Administration 
camp  that  the  Secretary  of  State  offered.  On  the  contrary, 
Webster  was  earnestly  importuned  to  take  the  lead  on  the 
floor,  and  to  frame  any  amendments  he  thought  necessary.2 
If  such  importunity  was  unnecessary,  it  was  none  the  less 
pleasing  to  the  vanity  of  the  orator,  and  Livingston  was  able 
to  carry  back  to  the  White  House  the  assurance  that  when 
Calhoun  spoke  he  would  be  answered  by  Webster.  On  the 
llth  of  February,  Webster  was  ready  and  waiting.3  Four 
days  later,  abandoning  the  hope  that  Webster  might  speak 
first,  Calhoun  began  one  of  the  most  powerful  speeches  of  his 
career.  The  Senate  Chamber  and  the  galleries  were  packed. 
As  the  tall,  gaunt  figure,  with  slightly  stooped  shoulders, 
rose,  the  solemnity  of  his  mien  and  manner,  the  fire  in  the 
wonderful  eyes  that  "watched  everything  and  revealed 
nothing,"  suggested,  to  some,  the  conspirator  with  his  back 
against  the  wall,  to  others  the  austere  patriot  battling  for  the 
liberties  of  his  country.4  We  need  not  concern  ourselves  with 
the  general  tenor  of  his  remarkable  argument  —  a  reiteration 
and  reenforcement  of  his  constitutional  views.  But  the  gen 
eral  spirit  of  resentment,  the  passionate  hate  of  Jackson,  the 
defiance,  constitute  dramatic  features  that  assist  in  the  sens 
ing  of  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  mighty  battle  was  waged. 
Almost  in  the  beginning,  in  defending  his  support  of  the 
tariff  of  1816,  and  explaining  that  he  had  spoken  at  the  in- 

1  Per  ley's  Reminiscences,  I,  140. 

2  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress,  and  Perleys  Reminiscences. 

3  Story  to  Brazier,  Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  n,  124. 

4  March,  in  his  Reminiscences  of  Congress,  gives  the  best  description  of  the  Force 
Bill  debate. 


r  THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         275 

stance  of  Ingham,  the  late  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  this 
spirit  flared  in  an  amazing  tribute  to  that  mediocre  and  un 
scrupulous  politician,  and  an  indirect  attack  upon  Jackson 
for  dismissing  him.  As  he  proceeded,  he  startled  the  Senate 
now  and  then  by  the  injection  of  personalities.  Here  a  con 
temptuous  fling  at  Van  Buren,  there  a  hint  at  Mrs.  Eaton, 
and  everywhere  references  to  contemplated  "war"  and 
" massacres"  and  "savages."  "I  proclaim  it,"  he  solemnly 
declared,  "that  should  this  bill  pass,  and  attempt  be  made  to 
enforce  it,  it  will  be  resisted  at  every  hazard  —  even  that  of 
death  itself."  It  was  two  o'clock  on  the  second  day  of  the 
speech  that  Calhoun  concluded,  with  a  warning  to  Southern 
Senators  that  should  the  bill  be  enacted  all  of  them  would  be 
excluded  from  the  emoluments  of  the  Government,  "which 
will  be  reserved  for  those  only  who  have  qualified  them 
selves,  by  political  prostitution,  for  admission  into  the  Mag 
dalen  Asylum." 

The  moment  he  sank  into  his  seat,  Daniel  Webster  rose. 

The  relations  between  Webster  and  the  Administration 
leaders  after  the  visit  of  Livingston  had  been  intimate  and 
confidential,  and  the  orator  had  availed  himself  of  the  in 
vitation  to  make  desirable  amendments.  One  stormy  day 
during  this  period,  the  great  opponent  of  the  Democratic 
Party  might  have  been  seen  rolling  up  to  the  Capitol  in  the 
White  House  carriage.  On  the  floor,  when  he  rose,  were 
many  of  the  Administration  leaders,  including  Lewis,  ready 
to  hasten  the  news  of  the  speech  and  its  reception  to  the 
White  House,  where  Jackson  was  anxiously,  but  confidently, 
waiting.  It  was  late  in  the  evening  when  the  orator  concluded 
his  masterful  argument  on  the  proposition  that  "the  Consti 
tution  is  not  a  compact  between  sovereign  States."  Brush 
ing  aside  the  personalities,  scarcely  referring  to  any  speech 
made  during  the  debate,  he  took  the  resolutions  Calhoun 
had  submitted  as  embodying  his  views,  and  based  his  argu 
ment  upon  these.  Speaking  with  his  accustomed  gravity, 


,  p 
y  c 


276    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

with  more  than  his  usual  earnestness,  without  passion  or  per 
sonal  feeling,  he  took  up  the  sophistries  of  the  Nullification 
school  and  crushed  them,  one  by  one.  Nullification  was  rev- 
lution,  and  success  meant  the  destruction  of  the  Republic, 
chaos,  the  end  of  American  liberty  ^To  prevent  these  evils 
was  the  duty  of  the  National  authority;  and  the  Force  Bill 
was  necessary  for  their  prevention. 

Long  before  he  closed,  the  lights  had  been  lit  in  the  little 
Senate  Chamber  where  the  crowd  was  densely  packed.  With 
his  conclusion  the  galleries  rose  and  cheered,  and  Poindexter, 
outraged  at  the  exhibition  of  feeling,  indignantly  demanded 
an  immediate  adjournment.  The  great  word  had  been 
spoken  in  the  Senate  —  the  Proclamation  reiterated  on  the 
floor.  No  one  was  more  delighted  with  Webster's  triumph 
than  Jackson.  "Mr.  Webster  replied  to  Mr.  Calhoun  yes 
terday,"  he  wrote  Poinsett,  "and,  it  is  said,  demolished  him. 
It  is  believed  by  more  than  one  that  Mr.  Calhoun  is  in  a 
state  of  dementation  —  his  speech  was  a  perfect  failure; 
and  Mr.  Webster  handled  him  as  a  child."  l 

j?hus  Webster  entered  upon  more  intimate  relations  with 
the  White  House,  with  Jackson  personally  thanking  him  for 
a  great  public  service,x/and  Livingston  reiterating  expressions 
of  appreciation.  The  Jackson  Senators,  Isaac  Hill  ex- 
cepted,  joined  in  the  assiduous  cultivation  of  the  orator,  and 
he  was  invited  to  strike  from  a  list  of  applicants  for  office  the 
names  of  all  displeasing  to  himself.  Such  was  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  President  that  overtures  were  unquestionably  made 
to  Webster,  as  set  forth  by  Benton,2  to  gain  his  adherence  to 
the  Administration.  It  was  a  crisis  in  his  life  and  in  the  poli 
tics  of  the  Nation.  He  was  then  closer  to  Jackson's  views  on 
vital  matters  than  to  those  of  either  Clay  or  Calhoun.  His 
antipathy  to  the  latter's  doctrines  was  as  pronounced  as  that 
of  Jackson;  and  he  had  no  respect  for  Clay's  play  to  the 

1  Jackson  to  Poinsett,  Feb.  17.  1833,  StillS's  Life  of  Poinsett. 
8  Thirty  Years'  View. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION        277 

seditious  with  his  compromise  tariff.  His  ideas  were  not 
remote  from  those  of  Livingston.  Had  he  then  broken  with 
his  old  co-workers,  and  allied  himself  with  the  dominant 
party,  he  would  have  been  advanced  immeasurably  toward 
the  Presidency.  Senator  Lodge  admits l  that  there  was  much 
truth  in  Benton's  theory,  but  reasonably  holds  that  the  coali 
tion  would  have  been  wrecked  by  the  inevitable  clashing  of 
the  conflicting  temperaments. 

VII 

MEANWHILE,  with  the  debate  dwindling  to  an  anti-climax, 
Calhoun  and  his  friends  were  not  nearly  so  indifferent  to  war 
as  they  pretended.  It  was  generally  understood  that  Jack 
son  was  ready  and  eager  to  strike  the  moment  an  overt  act 
was  committed.  With  Hayne  urging  caution,  some  irre 
sponsible  hothead  might  at  any  moment  hasten  the  crisis. 
Then,  all  knew,  Jackson  would  place  South  Carolina  under 
martial  law,  arrest  Calhoun  for  treason,  and  turn  him  over 
to  the  courts  for  trial.  Some  of  the  latter's  friends  began  to 
interest  themselves  in  a  compromise  tariff  that  would  open 
a  door  of  escape.  jThe  Whig  protectionists,  the  Nullifiersl/ 
and  the  Bank  were  rapidly  rushing  together  to  make  commonj 
cause  against  Jackson. /Under  Clay's  leadership  at  the  be 
ginning  of  the  session  these  elements  united  in  electing  Duff 
Green,  of  the  "Telegraph,"  printer  to  the  Senate,  and  Gales, 
of  the  "Intelligencer,"  to  the  House.  Thus,  through  Clay, 
the  Nullification  organ  secured  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  flooded 
the  South  with  circularized  appeals  for  support.  "If  the 
people  of  the  South  deserve  to  be  free  they  will  not  per 
mit  this  press  to  go  down,"  Green  wrote  —  and  this  was 
known  to  Clay.  The  Bank  party  looked  on  approvingly, 
with  John  Sargeant  writing  enthusiastically  to  Biddle  of 
the  new  political  alignments.  "The  new  state  of  parties," 
he  wrote,  "  will  be  founded  upon  a  combination  of  the  South, 

1  Life  of  Webster,  214-15. 


278    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  the  leaders  of  it  are  friends  of  the  Bank  upon  principle, 
and  will  be  more  so  from  opposition  to  Jackson. "  1  With  this 
alignment  in  mind,  John  M.  Clayton  cynically  observed  to 
Clay  that  "these  South  Carolinians  are  acting  very  badly,  but 
they  are  good  fellows,  and  it  would  be  a  pity  to  let  Jackson 
hang  them."  2  When  Representative  Letcher  of  Kentucky, 
a  boisterous  partisan  of  Clay's,  suggested  the  compromise 
plan  to  his  chief,  he  "received  it  at  first  coolly  and  doubt 
fully."  3  Afterwards  Clay  reconsidered  and  broached  the  sub 
ject  to  Webster,  who,  holding  the  Jackson  view,  replied  that 
"it  would  be  yielding  great  principles  to  faction;  that  the 
time  had  come  to  test  the  strength  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  Government."  4  Thereafter  Webster  was  not  included  in 
the  consultations. 

Perhaps  the  true  story  of  the  co^iproBfti§e_tariff^ll833  will 
never  be  known.  One  version  credits  the  initiative  to  Clayton 
in  calling  a  meeting  of  men  primarily  interested  in  the 
tariff,  and  only  incidentally  in  the  Nullification  crisis,  con 
sisting  of  but  half  the  New  England  Senators,  and  the  two 
from  Delaware,  with  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun  all  absent.5 
Many  years  later  John  Tyler  accepted  the  responsibility. 
According  to  his  version  he  "waited  on  Mr.  Clay."  They 
"conversed  about  the  times."  Clay  "saw  the  danger." 
Tyler  "appealed  to  his  patriotism,"  and  "no  man  appealed 
so  in  vain."  The  Virginian  referred  Clay  "to  another  man 
as  the  only  one  necessary  to  consult,  and  that  man  was 
John  C.  Calhoun."  It  would  not  only  be  necessary  for  Clay 
to  "satisfy  his  own  party,"  but  to  "reconcile  an  opposite 
party  by  large  concessions."  Thus  Clay  and  Calhoun  "met, 
consulted  and  agreed."  6  This  differs  in  some  particulars 
from  the  Benton  version.7  Here  we  have  it  that  Clay  pre 
pared  his  measure  and  sent  it  to  Calhoun  by  Letcher,  as  the 

1  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  201.  2  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  342. 

s  Ibid.  4  Ibid.  B  Comegys,  Memoir  of  Clayton. 

, 6  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I,  467.  7  Thirty  Years'  View. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         279 

two  negotiators  were  not,  at  the  time,  on  speaking  terms. 
Finding  some  objectionable  features  which  he  thought  a 
personal  interview  would  persuade  the  author  to  eliminate, 
Calhoun  asked  Letcher  to  arrange  a  conference,  which  was 
held  in  Clay's  room.  The  meeting  was  "cold  and  distant." 
Clay  rose,  bowed,  and  asked  Calhoun  to  be  seated,  and,  to 
relieve  the  embarrassment,  Letcher  took  his  departure.  Clay 
refused  to  yield. 

The  story  here  enters  into  the  melodramatic  although 
there  is  nothing  impossible  about  it.  Letcher,  in  another 
conference,  this  time  with  Jackson,  found  the  grim  old  war 
rior  hard  set  against  any  sort  of  a  compromise,  unwilling  to 
discuss  one,  and  determined  to  enforce  the  laws.  The  Ken- 
tuckian  related  the  conversation  to  McDuffie;  he  to  Calhoun. 
A  little  later  Letcher  was  awakened  from  a  sound  sleep  by 
Senator  Johnston  of  Louisiana,  an  intimate  friend  of  Clay, 
with  the  startling  story  that  he  had  heard  authoritatively 
that  Jackson  would  admit  of  no  further  delay,  and  was  pre 
paring  to  arrest  Calhoun  for  treason.  It  was  agreed  that  the 
Carolinian  should  be  immediately  notified,  and  in  the  dark 
ness  of  the  night  Letcher  hastened  to  Calhoun's  lodgings. 
As  the  gaunt  statesman  sat  up  in  bed,  the  Johnston  story  was 
told  him  and  "he  was  evidently  disturbed." 1  That  some  such 
incident  occurred  is  corroborated  by  Perley  Poore,2  who  was 
an  observer  of  events  in  the  Washington  of  that  day.  Here  we 
have  some  embellishments.  Calhoun  had  heard  some  threats 
and  had  sent  Letcher  to  Jackson  to  ascertain  his  intentions. 
The  old  man's  eyes  had  been  "lighted  by  an  unwonted  fire," 
and  he  had  told  the  emissary  that  with  the  first  overt  act,  he 
would  try  Calhoun  for  treason  and  "hang  him  high  as  Ha- 
man."  Thereupon  Letcher  made  all  haste  to  Calhoun,  who 
received  him  sitting  up  in  bed,  with  a  cloak  thrown  around 
him.  "There  sat  Calhoun,"  wrote  Perley  Poore,  "drinking 
in  eagerly  every  word,  and,  as  Letcher  proceeded,  he  turned 

1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  343.  *  Perley  s  Reminiscences. 


280    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

pale  as  death,  and  great  as  he  was  in  intellect,  trembled  like 
an  aspen  leaf,  not  from  fear  or  cowardice,  but  from  conscious 
ness  of  guilt."  l  Here  we  detect  the  professional  journalist 
drawing  perhaps  on  his  imagination  to  dramatize  the  picture. 

However,  Calhoun,  convinced  of  Jackson's  grim  deter 
mination,  was  ready  to  welcome  a  way  out  short  of  conflict 
or  utter  humiliation,  and  at  the  same  time  Clay  and  Clayton 
were  not  happy  over  the  situation.  The  protective  system 
had  brought  the  country  to  the  very  verge  of  disintegration. 
With  Nullification  crushed  by  force,  conservative  public 
opinion  might  demand  a  complete  reversal  of  the  revenue 
policy  and  destroy  the  "American  System."  That  Clay  at 
this  time  was  thinking  primarily  of  the  preservation  of  his 
protective  system,  and  secondarily  of  currying  favor  with 
the  extreme  State-Rights  party,  including  the  Nullifiers,  is 
plainly  disclosed  in  the  record.  Thus  the  proposed  com 
bination  of  the  Nullifiers  and  the  protectionists  to  stay  the 
arm  of  Jackson.  In  this  combination  no  one  was  more  prom 
inent  than  John  M.  Clayton,  the  brilliant  and  bibulous,  who 
frankly  cared  less  about  saving  the  Union  than  of  saving  the 
tariff,  and  who  would  "pause  long  before  he  surrendered  it 
[the  tariff]  even  to  save  the  Union."2  He  was  to  prove  him 
self  as  good  as  his  word  a  little  later. 

Thus,  in  the  midst  of  the  discussion  of  the  Force  Bill,  Clay, 
Calhoun,  Clayton,  Letcher,  and  Tyler  were  in  constant  com 
munication  on  the  compromise  tariff.  Webster  was  utterly 
ignored,  as  was  Jackson,  these  two  refusing  to  "compromise 
a  principle"  in  any  such  fashion.3  The  fact  that  Clay  and 
Calhoun  had  reached  a  general  agreement  was  soon  known, 
and  it  was  accepted  as  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
against  Jackson.  "They  are  partners  in  a  contra  dance," 
wrote  Blair  in  the  "Globe."  "For  some  time  they  turned 

1  Perley's  Reminiscences,  i,  138. 

2  Clayton's  speech  on  the  compromise  tariff. 

3  Van  Buren  thought  Clay's  action  patriotic  and  Webster's  "bloody."  (Autobi 
ography,  554-57.) 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         281 

their  backs  on  each  other.  They  will  make  a  match  of  it. 
In  plain  English,  we  have  a  new  coalition."  1 

In  due  time  the  bill  was  introduced  by  Clay,  much  to  the 
delight  of  Tyler.  "I  recall  the  enthusiasm  I  felt  that  day," 
said  Tyler,  almost  thirty  years  afterwards.  "We  advanced 
to  meet  each  other,  and  grasped  each  other's  hands,  midway 
of  the  chamber."  2  This  measure,  differing  from  Clay's  origi 
nal  plan,  provided  that  for  all  articles  paying  more  than 
twenty  per  cent  duty,  the  surplus  above  that  rate  should  be 
gradually  reduced,  until  in  1842  all  should  disappear.  The 
manufacturers  as  usual  had  been  summoned  and  consulted. 
At  first  dismayed  and  outraged,  they  soon  realized  that  it 
was  to  their  interest  to  fall  into  line.  Certain  features  had  been 
voted  down  in  committee,  but  here  Clayton  asserted  himself. 
He  announced  that  these  would  be  introduced  as  amendments 
on  the  floor,  and  that  unless  every  Nullifier  voted  for  them 
all,  he  would  kill  the  bill  himself  by  making  the  motion  to 
table  it.  The  most  objectionable  of  these,  to  Calhoun,  was 
that  on  home  valuation. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  Qg.g_jreser>terl  t.kp  bill  on 
February^ jjth,  three  days  before  Calhoun  rose  to  speak  on 
the  ForceBiil.  Webster  and  Adams,  thoroughly  disgusted, 
at  once  announced  their  opposition,  and  Jackson  could  not 
restrain  his  contempt  for  the  unholy  alliance,  which  was 
almost  immediately  to  become  a  triple  alliance  with  the  Bank 
as  the  third  party.  "I  have  no  doubt,"  the  President  wrote 
Hamilton,  "the  people  will  duly  appreciate  the  motive  which 
led  to  it."  3 

In  presenting  the  measure,  Clay  made  no  secret  of  his 
purpose.  "I  believe  the  American  System  to  be  in  the  great 
est  danger,"  he  said,  "and  I  believe  that  it  can  be  placed  on 
a  better  and  a  safer  foundation  at  this  session  than  next." 
Webster,  however,  was  not  impressed.  "This  may  be  so,  sir," 

1  Globe,  Feb.  20,  1833.  2  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I,  467. 

8  Jackson  to  Hamilton,  Hamilton's  Reminiscences. 


282    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

he  replied.  "  This  may  be  so.  But,  if  it  be  so,  it  is  because  the 
American  people  will  not  sanction  the  tariff;  and  if  they  will 
not,  then,  sir,  it  cannot  be  sustained  at  all."  Calhoun  heartily 
approved  the  object  of  the  bill.  "He  who  loves  the  Union," 
he  said,  "must  desire  to  see  this  agitating  question  brought 
to  a  termination."  John  Forsyth,  representing  the  Admin 
istration,  objected  to  the  introduction  of  the  bill  fourteen 
days  before  the  expiration  of  the  Congress.  Would  it  not  be 
better  to  await  the  action  of  the  House  on  the  bill  before  it  — 
the  Verplanck  Bill?  And  he  objected,  properly,  on  the  ground 
that  all  revenue  measures  had  to  originate  in  the  House. 
This  constitutional  objection,  raised  by  Forsyth,  was  met 
on  February  25th  just  as  the  House  was  about  to  adjourn  for 
dinner,  when  the  ever  handy  Letcher  arose  and  moved  the 
substitution  of  the  Clay  bill  for  the  one  then  pending.  The 
motion  was  carried  and  the  bill  passed  the  lower  branch  of 
Congress.1 

Thus  the  two  measures,  the  Force  Bill  and  the  compromise 
tariff,  were  pending  in  the  Senate  at  the  same  time,  with 
Clay  making  every  effort,  but  without  avail,  to  pass  his 
measure  first. 

On  February  24th  the  Force  Bill  was  called  up  for  final 
action.  With  the  beginning  of  the  calling  of  the  roll,  all  the 
enemies  of  the  measure,  with  the  single  exception  of  John 
Tyler,  arose  and  filed  from  the  Senate  Chamber.  Taken  by 
surprise  at  such  conduct,  Tyler  immediately  moved  an  ad 
journment.  Wilkins  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  Cal 
houn  and  his  followers  had  just  that  moment  withdrawn,  and 
the  motion  was  defeated.  The  roll-call  proceeded  —  and  only 
the  name  of  John  Tyler  appears  on  the  list  of  the  negatives. 
Such  was  always  the  courage  of  this  much-belittled  man  — 
a  courage  which  we  shall  meet  again.2  Five  days  later  the 
tariff  bill  was  called  up,  and  Clayton  offered  his  amendments 

1  Letcher's  character  and  status  are  discussed  by  Adams,  Memoirs,  March  5, 1831. 

2  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I,  467. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION         283 

which  were  so  offensive  to  Calhoun  and  his  followers,  re 
peating  his  threat  to  kill  the  bill  if  Calhoun  and  all  the 
Nullifiers  did  not  vote  for  every  amendment.  Clay  and 
Calhoun  consulted,  and  Clayton  was  importuned  to  yield, 
but  the  stubborn  protectionist  was  adamant.  Thus  con 
fronted,  Clay  and  Calhoun  accepted  the  amendments,  and, 
as  Clayton  presented  them,  voted  for  them,  one  by  one,  until 
the  last  and  most  distasteful,  on  home  valuation,  was  reached. 

Here  the  friends  of  Calhoun  balked,  and  Clayton,  never 
given  to  idle  bluster,  immediately  made  his  motion  to  table 
the  bill.  Clay  implored,  and  Clayton  set  his  jaws  and  shook 
his  head.  The  measure  seemed  doomed.  Meanwhile,  the 
Nullifiers,  greatly  alarmed,  withdrew  to  the  space  behind 
the  Vice-President's  chair  for  consultation.  Finally  Clayton 
was  requested  to  withdraw  his  motion  to  give  Calhoun  and 
his  friends  time  for  consideration.  With  the  understanding 
that,  unless  the  votes  were  forthcoming,  the  motion  would  be 
renewed,  the  request  was  granted,  and  the  Senate  adjourned 
for  the  night. 

The  morning  found  Clayton  confronted  with  a  plan  de 
vised  during  the  night  to  spare  Calhoua  the  humiliation  of 
voting  for  the  hated  amendment,  provided  enough  votes 
were  assured  to  carry  it  through  without  his  vote.  The  im 
movable  Clayton  sternly  shook  his  head.  Calhoun  must  vote 
for  every  amendment  and  for  the  bill.  When  the  Senate  con 
vened,  it  was  still  uncertain  what  the  Carolinian  would  do. 
At  length,  after  all  of  his  friends  had  first  stated  their  objec 
tions,  and  yet  reluctantly  yielded,  Calhoun  arose,  repeated 
the  performance,  and,  having  voted  for  the  amendment  at 
the  dictation  of  Clayton,  voted  for  the  bill.1  The  unhappy 
plight  of  Calhoun  was  not  lost  upon  his  enemies,  and  Blair 
found  in  it  an  inspiration  for  his  sarcasm.  "A  single  night," 
he  wrote,  "was  sufficient  to  change  the  settled  opinion  of  the 

1  Benton  makes  the  point  that  Clayton,  and  not  Clay  or  Calhoun,  was  the  master 
of  the  situation.  (Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  344.) 


284    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

profound  reader  of  the  Constitution.  We  exceedingly  doubt 
whether  in  the  private  interview  in  which  Mr.  Clay  disposed 
of  Mr.  Calhoun's  constitutional  scruples,  a  word  was  uttered 
in  relation  to  the  Constitution."  1  Thus  passed  into  law, 
under  circumstances  deserving  of  Benton's  reprehension, 
the  measure  concocted  by  a  combination  of  erstwhile  foes.2 
The  Nullifiers  died  hard,  and  Duff  Green,  the  pen  of  Nullifi 
cation,  made  printer  to  the  Senate  by  this  incongruous  com 
bination,  in  performing  the  hateful  official  duty  of  publish 
ing  the  Force  Bill  in  the  "Telegraph,"  had  the  impudence 
to  dress  his  paper  in  mourning.  "This  is  the  way,"  observed 
a  Jacksonian  paper,  "this  ungrateful  wretch  shows  his  grat 
itude  to  the  Senate  for  his  recent  appointment."  3 

vm 

MEANWHILE,  what  of  South  Carolina? 

The  letter  of  Cass,  published  in  the  "Richmond  Enquirer," 
had  borne  fruit,  and  Virginia  had  sent  Benjamin  Watkins 
Leigh,  a  lawyer  of  distinction  and  an  orator  of  no  mean 
ability,  to  Charleston  to  ask  a  suspension  of  the  Nullification 
Ordinance  until  Congress  had  adjourned.  An  ardent  dev 
otee  of  State  Rights,  now  a  bitter  enemy  of  Jackson,  and 
soon  to  enter  the  Senate  to  make  his  opposition  felt,  he  had 
much  in  his  principles  and  personality  to  command  a  re 
spectful  hearing  from  South  Carolina.  The  call  of  the  Nulli 
fication  Convention  was  consequently  postponed  until  after 
the  adjournment  of  Congress,  and  March  llth  was  fixed  as 
the  day  for  reassembling.  By  that  time  it  was  all  over  —  the 
Force  Bill  in  effect.  The  convention  met  at  Columbia,  with 
Hayne  in  the  chair.  Leigh  was  invited  within  the  bar.  The 
dominating  figure  of  the  scene,  however,  was  Calhoun,  who 
had  gone  post-haste  to  Carolina  to  urge  the  acceptance  of 
the  compromise.  The  tall,  thin  figure  of  the  great  Senator, 
seated  among  the  delegates  on  the  floor,  was  the  star  of  the 

*  Globe.  March  2, 1833.        »  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  345.      3  Mohawk  Gazette. 


THE  POLITICS  OF  NULLIFICATION        285 

assembly.  A  committee  was  named  to  consider  the  general 
course  of  action;  and  one  week  later  the  Ordinance  of  Nulli 
fication  was  rescinded,  and  by  a  vote  of  153  to  4  the  conven 
tion  agreed  that  the  threatened  danger  was  over. 

The  political  effect  of  the  fight  was  to  be  felt  throughout 
the  period  of  the  generation  then  living.  The  Secessionists 
and  Nullifiers  paraded,  with  much  flapping  of  banners, 
out  of  the  Democratic  Party,  to  be  joyously  and  effusively 
welcomed  by  Henry  Clay  into  the  Opposition.  During  the 
remainder  of  Jackson's  Administration,  the  most  bitter  and 
persistent  of  his  foes  were  to  be  men,  once  Democrats,  who 
had  left  the  party  because  Jackson  was  prepared  to  preserve 
the  Union  with  the  sword.  Calhoun  and  Preston,  McDuffie 
and  Poindexter,  Leigh  and  Tyler  —  these  were  to  crowd 
Clay  for  the  leadership  of  the  party  that  now  prepared  to 
enter  the  lists  against  Jackson  and  his  Administration,  flying 
the  flag,  and  posing  as  the  real  friends  of  the  Republic  and 
the  Constitution.  If  they  had  been  free  with  their  charac 
terizations  of  Jackson  during  the  Nullification  fight  as  "ty 
rant,"  "despot,"  "autocrat,"  they  were  to  use  the  epithets 
more  frequently  in  opposing  him  upon  the  Bank.  If  during 
this  latter  struggle  they  were  to  speak  with  almost  convincing 
eloquence  of  the  destruction  of  free  institutions,  they  had 
learned  the  language  when  calling  upon  the  people  to  defend 
their  liberties  against  the  author  of  the  Nullification  Proc 
lamation.  Out  of  this  alliance,  for  which  Clay  had  so  cun 
ningly  planned,  was  to  come  a  party  to  oppose  the  Demo 
cratic  Party  with  indifferent  success  for  twenty-two  years; 
and,  strangely  enough,  the  only  one  of  its  leaders  to  become 
a  beneficiary  of  the  unholy  alliance  was  John  Tyler,  who  was 
to  reach  the  White  House.  Poinsett,  after  the  Nullification 
fight,  retired  to  his  rice  plantation,  where  he  lived  with  his 
books  and  enjoying  the  society  of  cultivated  men  and  women, 
until  called  by  Van  Buren  to  enter  his  Cabinet.  Serving 
throughout  the  Administration,  he  returned,  at  the  expiration 


286    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

of  his  term,  to  his  plantation,  where  he  died  ten  years  before 
the  attack  on  Sumter. 

The  passage  of  the  two  important  measures  was  not,  how 
ever,  to  end  the  drama  of  the  session  —  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  in  American  history.  It  was  on  the  last  night  that 
Jackson,  finding  many  of  his  friends  had  left  the  Capitol, 
"pocketed"  Clay's  Land  Bill  and  his  own  veto.  Naturally 
enough  the  session  ended  in  bitter  partisan  wrangles  and 
with  much  bad  blood  on  both  sides.  Uproarious  shouts  of 
derision  greeted  the  customary  resolution  of  thanks  to  the 
Speaker.  Many  members  were  in  a  state  of  hopeless  drunk 
enness.  It  was  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  Adams  in 
vited  Edward  Everett  to  ride  home  with  him.  The  drowsy 
driver  touched  the  horses,  and  over  the  frozen  ruts  of  the 
Avenue,  the  carriage  jolted  homeward.  Almost  immediately 
the  driver  was  asleep,  and  the  carriage,  striking  a  rut  in 
front  of  Gadsby's,  the  sleepy  statesmen  narrowly  escaped  a 
plunge  into  the  snow.  Soon,  however,  they  reached  the  "  mac 
adamized  part  of  the  Avenue,"  without  more  mishaps;  and 
having  left  Everett  at  his  lodgings,  Adams  alighted  and 
walked  to  his  own  home,  with  the  thermometer  registering 
six  below  zero.  Thus  the  last  figure  of  that  historic  and  bitter 
session  of  whom  we  catch  a  glimpse  is  that  of  the  short, 
blear-eyed  ex-President,  trudging  homeward  through  the 
dark,  ill-paved  Washington  streets  at  five  o'clock  on  a  frigid 
morning.1 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  2, 1833. 


CHAPTER  XI 

JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE 
I 

CONGRESS  adjourned  two  days  before  the  second  inaugura 
tion  of  Jackson,  which  lacked  the  spectacular  features  of  the 
first.  His  brief  inaugural  address  revealed  absolute  con 
fidence  in  the  approval  of  the  people.  There  was  nothing  on 
the  surface  to  warn  of  his  purpose  to  continue  an  aggressive 
war  upon  the  Banl^  The  transfer  of  Livingston  from  the 
State  Department  to  the  Legation  in  Paris  necessitated  a 
reorganization  of  the  Cabinet.  Louis  McLane,  unsympa 
thetic  toward  the  President's  Bank  policy,  was  moved  from 
the  Treasury  to  the  State  Department.  This  left  the  sec 
retaryship  of  the  Treasury  vacant,  and  it  was  of  the  highest 
importance  that  it  be  filled  by  one  in  complete  harmony 
with  the  Executive  plans. 

The  choice  finally  fell  on  William  J.  Duane  of  Philadelphia, 
variously  described  as  "a  distinguished  lawyer"  and  as  "the 
bottom  of  the  Philadelphia  bar."  His  selection  had  been  rec 
ommended  by  Van  Buren  1  and  urged  by  McLane,  who  was 
Van  Buren's  intimate  at  the  time.2  He  was  at  least  known 
to  Jackson  as  the  son  of  the  fighting  editor  of  the  "Aurora," 
which  had  led  the  fight  against  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws.3 
Assuming  in  the  son  the  militant  qualities  of  the  father,  and 
actuated  partly,  perhaps,  by  the  thought  that  the  appoint 
ment  would  strengthen  the  Administration  in  its  fight  upon 
the  Bank,  Duane  was  pressed  to  enter  the  Cabinet,  and  con- 

1  Autobiography,  600. 

2  Professor  Bassett  credits  the  appointment  to  McLane  (Life  of  Jackson),  and 
Parton  has  it  that  it  was  a  personal  appointment  of  Jackson's  (Parton's  Life  of 
Jackson,  n,  632). 

8  See  George  Henry  Payne's  History  of  Journalism  in  the  United  States,  176-89. 


288    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

sen  ted.  The  personality  and  character  of  Duane  are  dim  on 
the  page  of  history.  The  Democratic  press  was  apparently 
hard  put  to  explain  the  appointment.  The  "Harrisburg 
Chronicle"  described  him  as  possessing  "a  well  disciplined 
mind,  severe  habits  of  business,  which,  combined  with  sound 
Democratic  principles  and  unbending  integrity,  are  the  high 
est  recommendations  for  office  in  a  free  popular  government." 
Thomas  Ritchie,  of  the  "Richmond  Enquirer,"  who  made 
a  more  studied  effort,  feared  that  the  appointment  would 
"scarcely  be  hailed  with  the  feeling  of  approbation  which  it 
so  richly  deserves."  But  Duane  understood  "the  character 
of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  —  its  designs  and  dangers," 
and  "on  that  cardinal  subject  we  have  no  doubt  he  will 
deserve  and  command  the  confidence  of  the  friends  of  the 
Constitution."  The  "Pennsylvanian"  informed  the  Na 
tional  Democracy  that  "Stephen  Gerard  saw  and  appreci 
ated  his  talents,"  and  that  he  was  "one  of  the  most  sagacious 
men  of  the  age."  1  It  was  only  after  his  break  with  Jackson 
that  the  champions  of  the  Bank  discovered  his  many  vir 
tues,  and  Administration  circles  his  utter  insignificance.  One 
of  Jackson's  enemies,  in  berating  him,  referred  to  Duane  as 
"that  other  darling  whom  you  fished  up  from  the  desk  of  a 
dead  miser,  and  the  bottom  of  the  Philadelphia  bar."  2  At 
first,  however,  Jackson  was  much  impressed  with  his  dis 
covery,  and  frequently  referred  to  him  as  "a  chip  of  the  old 
block,  sir." 

Having  reorganized  his  Cabinet,  Jackson  now  concentrated 
on  his  plans  for  the  invasion  of  "the  enemy's  country"  —  his 
New  England  tour.  His  remarkable  popularity  in  that  quar 
ter,  previously  so  hostile,  grew  out  of  his  vigorous  defense  of 
the  Union  and  his  new  relations  with  Webster.  In  the  spring 
of  1833  these  relations  were  most  cordial,  and  never  were  to 
become  personally  bitter.  At  that  time  he  was  not  on  speaking 

1  These  editorial  comments  were  copied  in  the  Globe  by  Blair. 
*  Henry  Lee.  quoted  by  Bassett,  Life  of  Jackson,  n,  633. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  289 

terms  with  either  Clay  or  Calhoun,  and  when  he  met  Adams 
on  the  street,  by  chance,  he  bowed  stiffly,  without  a  word. 
But  whenever,  in  his  meanderings  about  the  dingy  capital, 
he  encountered  Webster,  the  iron  man  would  pause  for  a 
hearty  greeting.  And  while  Webster  never  ceased  to  consider 
Jackson  temperamentally  unfit  for  the  Presidency,  he  never 
doubted  his  integrity  or  whole-hearted  patriotism.  "His 
patriotism,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  "is  no  more  to  be  ques 
tioned  than  that  of  Washington."  1 

It  was  early  in  June  that  Jackson  set  forth  in  company 
with  Van  Buren,  Cass,  Woodbury,  Donelson,  Hill,  and  the 
artist,  Earle,  who  lived  at  the  White  House.  From  the 
moment  the  party  reached  Baltimore  it  was  one  continuous 
ovation.  Received  like  a  conquering  hero  in  Philadelphia, 
with  an  enthusiasm  bordering  on  idolatry  in  New  York  City,2 
the  ovations  he  received  in  Massachusetts  eclipsed  them  all. 
Harvard  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws, 
Everett  delivered  an  address  of  welcome  at  the  foot  of  Bunker 
Hill,  and  while  the  multitude  went  wild  at  sight  of  him  in 
the  streets  and  on  the  Common,  the  gentry  of  Beacon  Street 
refused  him  the  homage  of  appearing  at  the  windows,3  and 
the  crabbed  Adams,  hiding  at  his  Quincy  home,  a  few  miles 
away,  poured  forth  his  spleen  upon  his  journal  and  mourned 
the  degradation  of  his  Alma  Mater.4  Under  the  load  of 
adulation,  the  old  man's  strength  finally  failed,  and  during 
the  last  part  of  his  progress  he  dragged  himself  from  his  bed 
to  the  parade,  and  from  the  physician  with  his  barbarous 
lancet  to  the  master  of  ceremonies.5  Throughout  the  tour 
his  thoughts  were  centered  on  the  Bank  and  his  plans  for 
the  removal  of  the  deposits,  and  but  few  suspected  that  the 

1  Thurlow  Weed's  Autobiography. 

2  Hone  in  his  Diary,  hostile,  recorded,  after  witnessing  the  ovation,  that  he  was 
" certainly  the  most  popular  man  we  have  ever  known."  (June  13,  1833.) 

8  Josiah  Quincy's  Figures  of  the  Past. 
4  Memoirs,  June  17,  June  18,  June  27,  July  2,  1833. 

6  See  Quincy's  Figures  of  the  Past  for  graphic  description  of  the  Massachusetts 
ovations. 


290    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

courtly  old  man,  whose  eyes  moistened  and  beamed  at  the 
applause  of  the  crowds,  was  meditating  the  step. 

When  Hamilton  called  upon  him  at  his  hotel  in  New  York, 
he  found  him  obsessed  with  the  subject.  When  the  son  of 
the  father  of  the  first  National  Bank  joined  him  in  the  pres 
idential  suite  to  accompany  him  to  the  banquet,  Jackson 
placed  in  his  hands  papers  by  several  people  urging  the  re 
moval  of  the  deposits,  with  the  request  that  he  examine 
them  carefully  and  give  him  an  opinion.  Promising  a  care 
ful  perusal,  Hamilton  ventured  the  suggestion  that  the  pro 
posed  step  was  "a  very  questionable  one"  that  would  "lead 
to  great  disturbances  in  commercial  affairs."  1  Meanwhile, 
when  alone  with  Van  Buren,  the  President  was  discussing  the 
project  with  him  to  his  keen  distress.2  Throughout  the  tour, 
sick  or  well,  Jackson  found  time  to  work  on  the  Vice-Presi 
dent  and  favorite,  and  when,  at  Concord,  he  finally  won  him 
over  to  the  plan,  the  frail  old  man  abandoned  the  tour  and 
hastened  back  to  Washington  to  begin  a  new  battle.3  And 
Adams,  learning  of  the  curtailment  of  the  trip,  wrote  that 
"President  Jackson  has  been  obliged  by  the  feeble  state  of 
his  health  to  give  up  the  remainder  of  his  tour."/  Just  how 
feeble  Jackson  was  we  shall  soon  see.  < 

in 

IT  is  impossible  definitely  to  determine  the  time  Jackson 
decided  on  the  removal  of  the  deposits.  The  activity  of  the 
Bank  in  the  presidential  campaign  had  not  been  lost  upon 
him,  and  he  probably  had  it  under  consideration  at  that 
time.  The  historian  of  the  Bank  is  convinced  that  such 
was  the  case.5  Immediately  after  the  election  these  ru- 

1  Hamilton  had  been  previously  warned  of  the  plan  by  McLane.    (Hamilton's 
Reminiscences,  253.) 

2  Van  Buren  gives  the  impression  that  he  actually  helped  Jackson  work  out  his 
plans  on  this  trip.  (Autobiography,  602-03.) 

3  Hamilton's  story  in  his  Reminiscences.  4  Memoirs,  July  2,  1833. 
6  Catterall's  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  128. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  291 

mors  multiplied,  and  Biddle  was  deluged  with  Warnings, 
but  without  disturbing  the  sublime  serenity  of  his  conceit. 
The  autocrat  of  the  Bank  was  satisfied  that  the  Calhoun 
following  would  thereafter  be  arrayed  in  favor  of  the  re- 
charter.  About  this  time  Dr.  Thomas  Cooper,  then  presi 
dent  of  the  College  of  South  Carolina  and  one  of  the  intel 
lectual  leaders  of  Nullification,  wrote  him  of  his  allegiance 
to  the  cause.1  Blair  had  already  charged,  in  the  "Globe," 
that  there  was  a  coalition  between  the  forces  of  Clay,  Cal 
houn,  and  Biddle,  and  made  much  of  the  fact  that  more  Bank 
stock  was  owned  in  South  Carolina  than  in  all  the  other 
States  of  the  Union  south  of  the  Potomac  and  west  of  the 
Alleghany  Mountains.2  The  Democratic  disaffection,  to 
gether  with  the  temporary  alliance  between  Jackson  and 
Webster,  was  quite  enough  to  restore  confidence  to  the  ever 
sanguine  Biddle,3  who  took  no  pains  to  conceal  his  satisfac 
tion.  This  was  water  on  the  wheel  of  Blair,  who,  lago-like, 
and  always  at  Jackson's  elbow,  kept  impressing  him  with 
the  idea  that  the  Bank  planned  and  expected  an  ultimate 
triumph.  In  this  work  he  was  ably  seconded  by  Amos  Ken 
dall  and  James  A.  Hamilton,  who  wrote  from  New  York  that 
"a  gentleman  whose  knowledge  of  the  views  of  the  U.S. 
Bank  is  only  second  to  that  of  its  President "  Jiad  informed 
him  that  it  expected  to  get  a  new  charter.4  ||t  was  firmly 
believed  by  Amos  Kendall  that  the  Bank's  purpose  in  add 
ing  $28,000,000  to  its  discounts,  and  multiplying  its  debtors 
and  dependents,  was  to  serve  a  political  end  in  the  campaign 
of  1836,  and  with  characteristic  persistency  he  urged  the  re 
moval  of  the  deposits  to  prevent  their  use  for  political  pur 
poses.5  Jackson  himself  feared  the  effect  of  loans  and  legal 
retainers  to  members  of  the  Congress.  In  all  these  suspicions 

1  Cooper  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  208. 

2  Globe,  March  23,  1833. 

8  Catterall,  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States.  290. 
4  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  251. 
*  Kendall's  Autobiography,  374-75. 


292    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

there  was  ample  justification.1  It  did  not  require  much, 
knowing  as  he  did  the  character  of.  the  banker,  to  persuade 
Jackson  that  his  duty  was  plain^nd  during  the  winter  and 
spring  of  1833  he  was  in  frequent  consultation  with  Roger 
Taney,  Amos  Kendall,  and  Frank  Blair,  the  three  men  respon 
sible  for  the  step  he  took. 

During  these  days  of  mysterious  conferences,  the  conserv 
ative  members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  Van  Buren  with  the 
traditional  timidity  of  the  candidate,  were  gravely  concerned. 
To  none  was  the  prospect  more  appalling  than  to  Louis  Mc- 
Lane,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a  conservative,  a  for 
mer  Federalist,  and  a  prospective  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dency.  In  his  anxiety  he  sent  for  Kendall,  avowed  his  doubts, 
and  asked  for  information.  In  the  end  he  frankly  confessed 
that  he  was  not  satisfied  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  step,  but 
that  he  would  execute  the  plan  if  called  upon  to  do  so  by  the 
President.  The  interview  was  friendly,  and  Kendall  returned 
to  his  office  and  prepared,  for  McLane's  edification,  an  elab 
orate  argument  in  favor  of  the  removal.  It  is  characteristic 
of  Kendall  that,  while  the  paper  lightly  touched  upon  the 
alleged  insecurity  of  the  deposits,  the  greater  part  of  the  pa 
per  was  a  discussion  of  the  political  effect.  The  hostility  of 
the  Bank  to  the  Administration,  he  thought,  could  not  be 
intensified.  If  the  deposits  were  placed  with  the  State  banks, 
they  would  become  partisans  of  the  Administration.  The 
people  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States  would  be  pleased, 
and  the  New  York  banks,  always  jealous  of  the  financial 
preeminence  of  Philadelphia,  would  at  least  secretly  rejoice. 
The  New  England  States  were  not  concerned,  one  way  or  the 
other,  and  could  be  safely  ignored.  And  in  the  end,  Kendall  in 
sisted  that  a  failure  to  remove  the  deposits  would  make  a  re- 
charter  certain.  That  this  letter,  written  March  16, 1833,  was 
promptly  placed  in  the  hands  of  Van  Buren,  who  was  McLane's 
sponsor  in  the  Administration,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
,  *  See  Theodore  Roosevelt's  Life  of  Benton,  103  and  110,  on  Biddle's  character. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  293 

The  aftermath  of  the  letter  came  a  few  days  later,  when 
Van  Buren,  meeting  Kendall  at  a  White  House  dinner, 
warmly  protested  against  the  plans  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet. 
The  genius  of  that  famous  group  rose  from  the  table  in  his 
excitement,  declared  that  failure  to  remove  the  deposits  made 
a  Whig  victory  certain  in  1836,  and  that  he  was  prepared  to 
lay  down  his  pen.  "I  can  live  under  a  corrupt  despotism," 
he  exclaimed,  "as  well  as  any  other  man  by  keeping  out  of  its 
way,  which  I  shall  certainly  do." 1  It  was  the  Vice-President 
and  not  the  auditor  of  the  Treasury  who  afterwards  apolo 
gized. 

It  was  under  these  conditions  that  Jackson  propounded  a 
series  of  questions  to  his  Cabinet,  with  a  preliminary  state 
ment  that  he  favored  the  removal.  The  first  count  of  noses 
in  the  official  household  showed  Livingston  and  Cass  for  the 
Bank,  Barry  and  Taney  against  it,  with  Woodbury  hedging. 
McLane,  having  greater  responsibility  as  the  head  of  the 
Treasury,  took  two  months  in  the  preparation  of  an  ex 
haustive  reply  opposing  the  removal,  and  his  argument  was 
afterwards  to  be  used  against  the  Administration. 

A  month  after  Congress  had  adjourned  there  was  a  relax 
ation  of  tension  in  Bank  circles  and  among  the  conserva 
tives  of  the  Administration  party,  who  assumed  that  nothing 
would  be  done  during  the  congressional  recess.  The  hostility 
of  a  majority  of  the  Cabinet  had  not  abated,  and  Biddle 
thought  that  the  deposits  were  safe. 

But  if  the  official  Cabinet  was  to  hear  no  more,  for  months, 
of  the  proposed  removal,  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  went  into 
almost  continuous  session  for  the  consideration  of  this  one 
subject.  The  disposal  of  the  deposits,  and  the  time  for  mak 
ing  the  removal,  were  the  principal  subjects  discussed  during 
those  spring  days  in  the  White  House,  and  it  required  but 
little  discussion  to  determine  upon  the  time.  Hugh  Lawson 
White  strongly  urged  the  postponement  of  action  until 

1  Kendall's  Autobiography. 


294    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Congress  convened,  but  this  was  instantly  overruled  by 
Taney  and  Kendall,  who  urged  a  recess  removal  for  different 
reasons.  The  Attorney-General  favored  such  action  "be 
cause  it  is  desirable  that  the  members  should  be  among  their 
constituents  when  the  measure  is  announced,  and  should 
bring  with  them  when  they  come  here,  the  feelings  and  sen 
timents  of  the  people."  1  Kendall  suggested  another  reason, 
also  political.  The  conservatives  had  made  some  impression 
on  Jackson's  mind  with  the  warning  that,  if  he  removed 
the  deposits,  Congress  would  order  them  restored,  and  he 
appealed  to  Kendall  for  his  opinion.  "If  I  were  certain," 
said  Kendall,  "that  Congress  would  direct  them  to  be  re 
stored,  still  they  ought  to  be  removed,  and  any  order  by 
Congress  for  their  restoration  disregarded;  for  it  is  the  only 
means  by  which  this  embodiment  of  power  which  aims  to 
govern  Congress  and  the  country  can  be  destroyed."  And, 
to  this  militant  advice,  he  added  his  reasons  for  favoring  the 
removal  during  the  congressional  recess.  "Let  the  removal 
take  place  so  early  as  to  give  us  several  months  to  defend 
the  measure  in  the  'Globe,'  and  we  will  bring  up  the  people 
to  sustain  you  with  a  power  which  Congress  dare  not  resist."  2 

Meanwhile  Duane  had  reached  Washington  and  assumed 
his  duties.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  Kendall  was  surprised  to 
find  him  loath  to  discuss  the  removal,  and  when  the  story 
of  this  reticence  was  carried  to  Jackson,  he  explained  to  his 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  what  was  wanted.  When  Duane 
demurred,  he  was  told  to  take  his  time  and  report  on  the 
President's  return  from  New  England.  By  this  time  Amos 
Kendall  had  assumed  the  leadership,  and  he  was  instructed 
to  interview  the  head  of  the  Treasury  during  Jackson's 
absence. 

At  this  time  Van  Buren,  waiting  in  New  York  to  join  his 

1  Taney's  letter  to  Jackson  at  Rip  Raps  in  August  thus  referred  to  this  advice 
previously  given.    (Tyler's  Life  of  Taney.) 

2  Kendall's  Autobiography,  376. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  295 

chief  on  his  tour,  was  blissfully  ignorant  of  the  embarrass 
ments  that  awaited  him  until  he  received  a  letter  written  on 
the  day  Jackson  set  forth  on  his  journey.  "The  Bank  and 
change  of  deposits  have  engrossed  my  mind  much,"  he 
wrote;  "it  is  a  perplexing  subject,  and  I  wish  your  opinion 
before  I  finally  act."  Three  days  later,  while  Jackson  was 
receiving  the  plaudits  of  the  multitude,  Kendall  made  the 
situation  clear,  in  a  letter  to  Van  Buren,  announcing  that 
the  removal  had  been  determined  upon  and  outlining  the 
tentative  plans.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  painful  to 
the  Vice-President,  who  had  strongly  urged  that,  with  the 
veto  of  the  recharter  bill,  the  Bank  be  permitted  quietly  to 
go  its  way  to  the  termination  of  its  charter. 

ra 

WHILE  Jackson  between  illnesses  and  ovations  was  bringing 
the  power  of  his  compelling  personality  to  bear  upon  his  pro 
tege's  timidity,  Kendall  was  following  instructions  in  Wash 
ington  in  attempting  to  ascertain  the  intentions  of  Duane. 
In  this  he  was  wholly  unsuccessful.  Time  and  again  the  sub 
ject  was  broached  only  to  be  brushed  aside,  and  Jackson, 
constantly  informed,  had  some  savage  moments  while  smiling 
urbanely  upon  the  crowds. 

Reaching  the  capital  on  July  4th,  he  immediately  sum 
moned  Duane  to  a  conference.  The  Secretary,  who  had  been 
ill,  rose  from  a  sick-bed  and  presented  himself  at  the  White 
House  looking  pale  and  feeble.  At  the  sight  of  his  wan 
adviser,  the  impulsive  Jackson  penitently  grasped  both  his 
hands,  reproved  him  for  venturing  forth  in  such  a  condition, 
and  kindly  postponed  the  interview  until  he  had  recovered.1 
After  an  absence  of  eight  days  Duane  appeared  at  the  White 
House  again,  with  a  lengthy  letter  setting  forth  his  reasons 
for  objecting  to  the  removal  until  after  Congress  had  been 
informed.  Three  days  later,  or  on  July  15th,  another  con- 

1  Van  Buren 's  Autobiography,  602. 


296    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ference  between  Jackson  and  his  rebellious  Secretary  was 
held  with  Duane  stubbornly  holding  his  ground,  and  Jack 
son  kindness  itself.  In  truth,  it  appears  that,  with  the  aid  of 
McLane,  Duane  had  succeeded  in  arousing  some  misgivings 
in  Jackson's  mind  as  to  the  possibility  of  persuading  the  State 
banks  to  accept  the  deposits. 

"Send  me  to  ask  them,  and  I  will  settle  that  question," 
said  Kendall. 

"You  shall  go,"  Jackson  replied. 

Summoning  the  unhappy  Duane,  the  President  announced 
a  postponement  of  discussions  until  the  attitude  of  the  State 
banks  could  be  ascertained.  Kendall  was  to  be  the  agent  of 
the  Treasury  on  a  tour  of  investigation,  and  Duane  was  to 
prepare  the  necessary  instructions. 

When  these  instructions  Were  delivered  to  Kendall,  he  was 
amazed.  They  merely  asked  the  opinions  of  the  banks  on 
the  general  question,  and,  in  view  of  their  well-established 
hostility,  it  was  clear  enough  what  the  answer  would  be. 
Wrathfully  hastening  to  the  White  House,  Kendall  bluntly 
refused  to  carry  instructions  so  framed,  declaring  the  sole 
purpose  of  the  investigation  should  be  to  learn  whether  State 
banks  would  accept  the  deposits.  He  was  told  to  prepare  his 
own  instructions,  and  thus  the  head  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet 
sallied  forth  on  his  own  terms.  About  the  same  time,  Jack 
son,  in  need  of  a  rest  and  release  from  the  sultry  atmosphere 
of  Washington,  went  to  Rip  Raps  in  Hampton  Roads,  where 
he  was  accustomed  to  relax  in  the  summer,  accompanied  by 
Frank  Blair.  Thus,  with  one  member  of  the  Kitchen  Cabi 
net  making  a  tour  of  the  banks  on  his  own  instructions,  an 
other  was  at  Jackson's  elbow  in  the  unconventional  environ 
ment  of  Rip  Raps.1  All  these  various  moves  were  promptly 
reported  to  Biddle  by  some  member  of  the  Administration, 
and  on  the  day  Kendall  was  expected  in  Philadelphia,  the 

1  During  this  time  Jackson  was  deluged  by  propaganda  letters  on  behalf  of  the 
Bank  from  "friends."  (Blair  to  Van  Buren,  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  607.) 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  297 

financial  autocrat  was  writing  to  Dr.  Cooper,  his  new  ally, 
in  laudation  of  the  firmness  of  Duane  and  the  viciousness  of 
the  Kitchen  Cabinet.1 

Meanwhile,  in  his  visits  to  the  banks  of  Baltimore,  Phila 
delphia,  New  York,  and  Boston,  Kendall  was  pulled  and 
hauled  and  mauled  by  both  the  servitors  of  the  Bank  and  the 
conservatives  of  the  Administration  circle.  At  Philadelphia 
it  was  hinted  that  a  fortune  was  within  his  grasp  if  he  would 
but  avail  himself  of  the  opportunity.2  There,  too,  he  fell 
foul  of  James  Gordon  Bennett,  then  editor  of  the  "Penn- 
sylvanian,"  whose  mask  of  cordiality  was  dropped  in  the 
publication  of  Kendall's  private  letters  showing  hostility  to 
the  Bank  —  as  though  private  letters  were  necessary  to  the 
proof.3 

But  more  significant,  and  politically  more  important,  was 
Kendall's  interview  with  Van  Buren  and  McLane  in  New 
York  City.  The  three  met  by  chance  in  the  breakfast  room 
of  an  hotel,  and  in  an  interview,  then  arranged,  it  was  pro 
posed  by  the  hedging  politicians  that  the  removal  of  the 
deposits,  be  postponed  until  January  when  Congress  would 
be  in  session.  This  plan  originated  with  McLane,  and  Ken 
dall,  who  suspected  it  was  proposed  with  the  hope  and  ex 
pectation  that  Congress  would  interpose,  replied  that  he 
would  be  satisfied  provided  McLane,  Duane,  and  the  other 
Bank  Democrats  would  agree  to  use  their  personal  influence 
with  members  of  Congress  to  have  the  deposits  removed.4 
It  was  agreed  that  all  three  should  write  Jackson  at  Rip 
Raps,  and,  in  complying,  Kendall  said  that  the  proposal  was 
against  his  judgment,  and  Jackson  instantly  rejected  it.5 

Throughout  July  the  Opposition  and  Bank  papers  were 
warning  the  public  of  the  movement  on  foot,  and  the  "In- 

1  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  214. 

2  Kendall's  Autobiography. 

1  Bennett  soon  afterwards  established  the  New  York  Herald. 

4  Significantly  enough,  Van  Buren  overlooks  this  incident  in  his  Autobiography. 

6  Kendall's  Autobiography,  383. 


298    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

telligencer"  was  especially  alarmed,  dwelling  at  length  on  the 
rumor  that  Kendall  was  in  Philadelphia  before  he  had  even 
left  Washington.  Blair  was  moved  to  mirth.  He  admitted 
that  Kendall  had  been  seen  taking  a  stage,  carrying  with 
him  "a  large  black  trunk,"  and  that,  while  he  "looked  char 
itable,  his  intent  may  be  wicked."  Worse  still,  "the  Editor 
of  the  'Globe'  left  for  the  South  two  days  before  with 
baggage  enough  to  last  a  man  a  lifetime."  A  mysterious, 
uncanny  combination  of  events,  he  conceded,  that  "bodes  to 
owners  of  U.S.  Bank  stock,  who  purchased  at  50  per  cent, 
no  good."  1 

This  facetiousness  enraged  and  alarmed  the  Opposition, 
and  its  press  began  to  threaten  to  impeach  Duane  if  he 
removed  the  deposits.  Kendall  was  scourged  with  excoria 
tions,  and  State  banks  were  warned  against  taking  the  de 
posits  on  pain  of  the  displeasure  of  the  Biddle  institution. 
Papers  under  the  influence  of  the  Bank,  but  still  posing  as 
Jacksonian,  were  sure  that  Jackson  "and  his  able  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury"  would  "not  be  hurried  or  retarded  in  his 
important  measure  by  the  violent  and  indiscreet  denuncia 
tions  and  threats  of  any  set  of  men,"  and  would  "act  on  the 
deposits  at  the  proper  time  and  in  the  proper  way." 2  And 
Blair,  catching  the  subtle  suggestion  of  Bennett,  hastened 
to  assail  him  as  having  been  "smuggled  into  the  confidence 
of  an  unsuspecting  Democracy  as  a  friend  of  the  cause"  and 
as  a  "treacherous  instrument  of  Webb  and  Biddle,"  who  had 
"the  impudence  to  propose  by  praise  to  flatter  the  President 
and  his  Cabinet  to  adopt  the  views  of  the  Bank."  3  From 
his  sanctum  in  the  office  of  the  "Albany  Journal,"  Thurlow 
Weed,  wisest  of  the  Whig  journalists,  sent  forth  the  threat 
of  panic.  "We  are  impatient  for  the  removal,"  he  wrote. 
"Nothing  short  of  a  general  ruin  will  cure  the  people  of 
their  delusions,  and  the  sooner  it  comes,  the  better."  4 

1  Globe,  July  31,  1833.  2  Pennsylvanian.  *  Globe,  Sept.  7,  1833. 

,    4  Blair  carefully  collected  all  such  threats  and  published  them  in  the  Globe. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  299 

IV 

MEANWHILE  Jackson  at  Rip  Raps  was  in  daily  conference 
with  Frank  Blair  on  the  problems  of  the  removal.  All  this 
time  Blair  was  creating  the  impression  in  the  "Globe"  that 
the  President's  sole  thought  was  the  recovery  of  his  health. 
The  sea  air  was  "proving  advantageous,"  his  appetite  better, 
his  strength  returning.  Nothing  was  more  remote  from  the 
thoughts  of  Jackson.  The  situation  was  delicate  and  po 
litically  mixed.  The  Cabinet  was,  for  the  most  part,  hostile. 
Conservative  Democrats  were  terrified  at  the  thought  of 
such  radical  action,  and  feared  the  complete  disruption  of  the 
party  and  its  defeat  in  1836.  Kendall  does  not  misstate  the 
conditions  when  he  says  that  "the  ambitious  politicians  who 
still  surrounded  General  Jackson,  trembled  in  their  knees,  and 
were  ready  to  fly,"  and  that  "almost  the  only  fearless  and 
determined  supporters  he  had  around  him  were  Mr.  Taney, 
the  editor  of  the  'Globe,'  and  its  few  contributors."1  The 
brilliant,  but  ultra-conservative  Ritchie,  of  the  "Richmond 
Enquirer,"  feared  that  the  party  would  "rue  the  precipitate 
step  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,"  and  that  it  would  "present 
nothing  but  a  splendid  ruin."  2 

Painful  as  the  situation  was  to  all  conservatives,  it  was 
maddening  to  Van  Buren,  who  thought  he  saw  the  Presi 
dency  slipping  from  his  grasp.  In  his  desire  to  get  as  far  away 
as  possible,  he  was  planning  a  month's  outing  with  Washing 
ton  Irving  among  the  Dutch  settlements  of  Long  Island  and 
the  North  River,  when  a  letter  reached  him  from  Jackson 
calling  upon  him  to  take  a  stand.  His  reply,  under  date  of 
August  19th,  would  have  pleased  Talleyrand.  Having  great 
confidence  in  Silas  Wright,  Senator  from  New  York,  he 
wrote  that  he  would  confer  with  him  and  then  formulate  his 
views.  A  little  later  he  wrote  that  he  and  Wright  favored 

1  Kendall's  Autobiography,  391. 

8  Letter  to  Stevenson,  in  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie,  160. 


300    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  McLane  plan.  The  tone  of  sharp  surprise  in  Jackson's 
response  alarmed  the  hard-pressed  heir  apparent,  and  he 
hastily  wrote  that  he  would  yield  to  the  wisdom  of  Jackson. 
But  his  troubles  were  not  over.  Another  letter  from  Jackson, 
more  alarming  still,  pursued  him  to  poison  his  vacation,  sum 
moning  him  to  Washington  for  a  consultation.  The  cunning 
politician  never  faced  a  more  painful  problem.  He  could  not 
afford  to  break  with  the  all-powerful  party  dictator  in  the 
White  House  —  that  would  be  to  abandon  the  Presidency. 
Nor  was  he  at  all  certain  that  he  could  afford  to  become  in 
timately  identified  with  the  desperate  enterprise  upon  which 
the  chief  was  determined  to  embark.  The  one  would  de 
prive  him  of  the  nomination  of  his  party;  the  other  might 
make  that  nomination  worthless.  The  campaign  of  1836 
was  already  in  full  swing,  and  the  Opposition  was  insinuating 
a  directing  influence  between  the  most  unpopular  measures 
of  the  Administration  and  Van  Buren.  Timid  and  cautious 
by  temperament,  his  peculiar  situation  accentuated  these 
traits  in  the  candidate,  and  the  summons  to  the  seat  of  war 
sounded  to  him  like  the  crack  of  doom. 

But  he  was  equal  to  the  crisis.  Writing  at  once  of  his 
willingness  to  respond  if  Jackson  thought  best,  he  feared  his 
presence  in  Washington  at  the  time  of  the  withdrawal  would 
dim  the  prestige  of  the  act  by  giving  it  the  appearance  of 
having  been  inspired  by  the  moneyed  interests  of  New  York.1 
Having  painted  this  thought,  he  added  some  lines  for  the 
protection  of  Louis  McLane,  his  friend.  He  was  fearful  that, 
on  the  resignation  of  Duane,  McLane  might  feel  that  he 
should  also  tender  his,  and  that  would  be  a  pity.  Would  it 
not  be  a  good  idea,  in  the  event  the  resignation  were  offered, 
to  reply  that  "y°u  confide  in  him  &c,  notwithstanding  the 
difference  between  you  on  this  point,  and  that  if  he  could 

1  Riddle  was  trying  to  make  it  appear  that  the  real  fight  was  "  between  Chest 
nut  Street  and  Wall  Street  —  between  a  Faro  Bank  and  a  National  Bank,''  as 
shown  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Cooper.  (Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  209.) 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  301 

consistently  remain  in  the  Administration,  you  would  be 
gratified?"  That  the  suspicious  Jackson  was  deceived  is 
highly  improbable,  albeit  where  his  affections  were  involved, 
as  in  the  case  of  Van  Buren,  his  vision  was  apt  to  be  occasion 
ally  defective. 

But  Van  Buren  and  his  advice  were  not  needed,  for  a 
stronger  man,  with  courage  and  an  iron  will  equal  to  his  own, 
was  moving  to  the  side  of  Jackson.  Throughout  the  months 
of  conferences  and  discussions  the  one  member  of  his  official 
Cabinet  who  was  in  whole-hearted  sympathy  with  the  wishes 
of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  was  Roger  Taney,  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral.  Before  leaving  for  Rip  Raps,  Jackson  had  discussed 
with  him  the  steps  to  be  taken  in  the  event  of  a  definite  re 
fusal  from  Duane  to  order  the  removal,  and  had  intimated 
that  he  would  transfer  Taney  to  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  Just  about  the  time  Jackson  was  puzzling  over 
the  peculiar  hedging  of  Van  Buren,  he  received  a  letter  from 
Taney  that  delighted  him.  The  latter  reiterated  his  convic 
tion  that  the  deposits  should  be  removed,  and  during  the 
congressional  recess.  He  was  sure  "the  powerful  and  cor 
rupting  monopoly"  would  "be  fatal  to  the  liberties  of  the 
people"  unless  destroyed,  and  Jackson  alone  could  encom 
pass  its  destruction.  The  President  had  "already  done  more 
than  any  other  man  has  done,  or  could  do,  to  preserve  the 
simplicity  and  purity  of  our  institutions,  and  to  guard  the 
country  from  this  dangerous  and  powerful  instrument  of 
corruption."  He  had  "doubted"  whether  Jackson's  friends 
and  the  country  had  the  right  to  ask  him  "to  bear  the  brunt 
of  such  a  conflict  as  the  removal  of  the  deposits  under  pres 
ent  conditions  is  likely  to  produce."  He  had  no  desire  for 
the  secretaryship  of  the  Treasury,  but  he  "  would  not  shrink 
from  the  responsibility"  if,  in  the  President's  judgment,  "the 
public  exigency  would  require"  him  to  undertake  it.1  Here 
was  a  man  quite  as  persuasive  in  his  flattery  as  Van  Buren, 
1  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 


302    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  prepared,  as  Van  Buren  was  not,  to  stake  his  future  upon 
an  aggressive  support  of  the  removal. 

For  the  time  being,  then,  exit  Van  Buren. 

Enter  Roger  B.  Taney. 

By  this  time  Jackson's  mind  was  thoroughly  made  up. 
The  tour  of  Kendall  had  not  been  a  complete  success.  The 
banks  were  timid  and  fearful  of  the  power  of  "The  Monster." 
Catterall  credits  the  report  that  Kendall  himself  had  con 
cluded  the  plan  unwise,  and  had  admitted  to  Jackson  that 
"the  project  of  removing  the  deposits  must  be  given  up."  1 
This  advice,  if  given,2  came  too  late.  The  old  military  leader 
was  in  the  saddle,  war  was  declared,  retreat  was  defeat. 
Thus,  a  few  days  after  receiving  Taney's  letter,  Jackson 
wrote  him  that  he  had  considered  the  probability  that  Con 
gress  would  attempt  to  overawe  him,  and  had  determined 
that,  when  Duane  withdrew,  Taney  should  step  into  the 
place  and  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  Treasury  until  toward 
the  close  of  the  next  session  of  Congress,  when  the  battle 
would  have  been  won  or  lost,  and  the  refusal  of  the  Senate  to 
confirm  Taney's  nomination  would  not  interfere.  He  was 
only  awaiting  proof  of  the  expenditure  of  $40,000  of  Bank 
money  in  the  campaign.  With  this  proof,  of  which  he  had 
no  doubt,  he  would  feel  justified  in  removing  the  deposits. 
The  Bank  might  "rebel  against  our  power,  and  even  refuse 
to  pay  to  the  order  of  the  Government  the  public  money  in  its 
vaults,  and  lay  claim  to  all  the  money  that  remains  uncalled 
for  on  the  books  of  the  loan  office."  Everywhere  he  found 
the  "assumed  power  of  this  monster."  This  pretension  must 
be  challenged  and  tested,  and  he  had  no  doubt  of  being  "sus 
tained  by  the  people."  8 

Thus  the  die  was  definitely  cast  at  Rip  Raps  early  in  Sep 
tember,  and  Jackson  returned  to  Washington  determined  to 
force  the  fighting. 

1  Catterall,  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  203. 

2  Kendall,  in  his  Autobiography,  gives  no  bint  of  such  discouragement  or  advice. 
8  Letter  in  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  303 

V 

As  soon  as  he  reached  the  capital,  he  began  to  press  Duane 
more  insistently,  with  the  Secretary  stubbornly  refusing  to 
budge.  Some  time  before  he  had  voluntarily  given  the 
assurance  that  if  the  President  should  determine  upon  the 
course  outlined,  and  he  should  be  unable  to  comply,  he  would 
promptly  tender  his  resignation.  The  President's  intentions 
were  now  thoroughly  understood,  but  Duane  gave  no  indica 
tion  of  a  disposition  to  relinquish  his  post,  and  the  pro-Bank 
papers  were  decorating  him  with  laurels.  The  first  covert 
attack  upon  him  from  Administration  circles  appeared  in  the 
"Globe"  of  September  12th,  when  Blair,  taking  cognizance 
of  an  article  in  the  "Baltimore  Chronicle,"  denounced  it  as  a 
"slanderer  of  Mr.  Duane."  "Would  the  'Chronicle*  convert 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  into  a  Bank  officer,  and  have 
him  communicating  to  the  corporation  what  belongs  only 
to  his  relations  with  the  President?"  Even  Duane  could 
not  have  mistaken  the  implication.  Five  days  after  this 
article  appeared,  the  Cabinet  was  convened,  and  Jackson 
took  the  opinion  of  his  advisers.  McLane,  Duane,  and  Cass 
were  against  the  step,  with  Taney,  Barry,  and  Woodbury 
(who  had  previously  hedged) ,  favoring  it. 

On  the  following  day  the  Cabinet  was  again  convened  to 
hear  the  President's  reasons  for  his  determination,  set  forth 
in  the  famous  "Paper  Read  to  the  Cabinet."  This  docu 
ment,  as  read,  had  Been  revised  and  rewritten  from  the  notes 
sent  by  Jackson  from  his  retreat  at  Hampton  Roads  to 
Taney,  and  was  to  become  the  storm  center  of  congressional 
controversy,  although  it  did  not  concern  the  Congress  in 
least.  ^Beginning  with  a  confession  of  a  fixed  hostility  to  th 


Bank  on  the  conviction  of  its  unconstitutionality  and  danger 
to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  he  elaborately  reviewed  the  I 
charter  controversy.    The  people  had  passed  upon  his  con-// 
duct  at  the  polls  and  he  had  been  overwhelmingly  vindicate^/ 


304    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

|  The  Nation,  therefore,  having  definitely  decided  on  the 
abandonment  of  the  Bank  as  a  place  of  deposit,  some 

'  method  should  be  devised  for  the  future  deposit  of  the  public 
funds  before  the  expiration  of  the  charter.  Under  the  law, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  could  withdraw  the  deposits 
whenever  he  saw  fit,  provided  he  informed  Congress  of  his 
act  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  To  leave  the  deposits  with 
the  Bank  until  the  day  of  the  expiration  of  the  charter  with 
the  expectation  of  making  the  transfer  to  some  other  deposi 
tory  at  once  would  mean  "serious  inconvenience  to  the  Gov 
ernment  and  people."  Such  work,  he  thought,  "ought  not 
to  be  the  work  of  months  only,  but  of  years,"  for  otherwise 
"much  suffering  and  distress  would  be  brought  upon  the 
people."  These  considerations  alone,  he  thought  sufficient 
to  justify  the  step  he  proposeoy^ 

But  in  the  conduct  of  the  Bank  additional  and  more  press 
ing  reasons  could  be  found.  Knowing  of  the  Government's 
decision  to  appropriate  the  greater  part  of  its  deposits  during 
1832  to  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,  the  Bank,  in  the 
sixteen  months  preceding  May,  1832,  had  extended  its  loans 
more  than  $28,000,000,  and  the  maximum  of  the  extension 
had  been  made  in  May.  And  two  months  before  that,  the 
Bank  had  so  perfectly  understood  its  inability  to  pay  over 
the  public  deposits  when  called  upon,  that  it  had  secretly 
negotiated  with  foreign  holders  of  the  three  per  cent  stock  a 
year's  postponement  of  a  demand  for  payment  after  notice 
should  be  given  by  the  Government.  "This  effort  to  thwart 
the  Government  in  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,"  he  said, 
"that  it  might  retain  the  public  money  to  be  used  for  their 
private  interests,  palliated  by  pretenses  notoriously  un 
founded  and  insincere,  would  have  justified  the  instant  with 
drawal  of  the  public  deposits." 

Since  the  congressional  report  in  favor  of  the  Bank,  other 
things  had  occurred  that  would  surely  alter  the  opinion  of 
the  lawmakers. "  The  fact  that  the  Bank  controls,  and  in  some 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  305 

cases  substantially  owns,  and  by  its  money  supports,  some 
of  the  leading  presses  of  the  country,  is  now  more  clearly  es 
tablished."  Extravagant  sums  had  been  loaned  to  editors  on 
unusual  time  and  nominal  security  in  1831  and  1832.  And 
the  proceedings  and  management  of  the  Bank  had  been  un 
usual  and  indefensible.  The  terms  of  the  charter  had  been 
violated;  and  when  Government  directors  undertook  to  re 
store  methods  in  conformity  with  the  terms  of  the  charter, 
they  had  been  disregarded.  Worse  still:  the  most  important 
transactions  involving  the  credit  of  the  Bank  had  been  turned 
over  to  Biddle,  and  the  committees  left  in  utter  ignorance  of 
what  he  was  doing.  He  had  been  given  unlimited  authority 
in  the  use  of  the  Bank's  money  for  propaganda  purposes. 
Thousands  of  dollars  had  been  squandered  in  the  printing 
of  speeches  and  pamphlets,  not  only  defending  the  Bank,  but 
attacking  the  chosen  representatives  of  the  people.  If,  as 
claimed,  the  Bank  could  bring  distress  and  chaos  in  retalia 
tion,  all  the  more  reason  for  breaking  the  power  of  the  tyran 
nical  institution.  And  he  closed  by  fixing  October  1st  as  the 
day  for  action. 

As  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  sat  in  the  White  House  that 
day  under  conflicting  emotions,  all  appreciating  the  seriousness 
of  the  step,  and  some  contemplating  the  closing  of  a  career, 
there  could  have  been  none  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the 
Paper  was  intended  less  for  them  than  for  the  public.  It  was 
characteristic  of  Jackson  in  preparing  his  ground  for  a  fight 
to  speak  over  the  heads  of  both  Cabinet  and  Congress  to  the 
people.  That  Kendall  and  Blair  were  in  large  part  responsible 
for  the  original  draft  which  reached  Taney  for  revision,  there 
can  be  no  doubt. 

Knowing  the  real  purpose  of  the  Paper,  Duane  requested  a 
postponement  of  publication  until  he  could  definitely  decide. 
While  the  Paper  was  being  put  in  type  at  the  "Globe" 
office,  McLane  and  Cass  threatened  to  resign  rather  than 
accept  any  responsibility  for  the  act,  and  Lewis  suggested  that 


306    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

they  be  publicly  relieved  of  responsibility.  When  Blair  has 
tened  to  Jackson  with  Lewis's  suggestion,  the  grim  man  of 
iron  added  the  concluding  paragraph  assuming  full  personal 
responsibility  —  much  to  the  chagrin  and  disgust  of  Taney.1 

The  crisis  had  now  been  reached,  and  the  action  of  Duane 
was  awaited  by  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  with  the  keenest  inter 
est,  not  unmixed  with  fear  lest  Taney  decline  to  take  the 
vacant  place  and  face  the  bitter  fight.  Taking  counsel  of  his 
fears,  Kendall  rushed  to  the  Attorney-General  and  was  re 
assured.  Confessing  his  fear  that  his  acceptance  would  mean 
the  end  of  his  lifelong  hopes  for  a  place  on  the  Supreme 
Bench,  Taney  declared  himself  in  the  fight  to  the  end.2 

On  September  21st,  the  "Globe"  authoritatively  an 
nounced  that  "the  deposits  would  be  changed  to  State  banks" 
as  soon  as  the  necessary  arrangements  could  be  made;  and 
in  anticipation  of  the  nature  of  the  war  the  Bank  would  wage, 
Blair  stressed  the  fact  that  the  deposits  would  not  be  imme 
diately  withdrawn,  and  that  the  process  would  be  gradual. 
"It  is  believed,"  he  wrote,  "that  by  this  means  the  change 
need  not  produce  any  inconvenience  to  the  commercial  com 
munity." 

Four  days  later  the  "  Paper  Read  to  the  Cabinet "  appeared 
in  full  in  the  "Globe." 

VI 

Two  days  after  this  publication,  Major  Lewis  wrote 
Hamilton  that  "if  Mr.  Duane  cannot  or  will  not  make  the 
order,"  he  would  be  superseded  by  Taney.  "who  has  been 
decidedly  with  the  President  in  relation  to  this  matter  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end,"  and  discrediting  rumors  of  other 
Cabinet  resignations.3  Whatever  may  have  been  the  feelings 
of  Hamilton,  who  looked  upon  the  plan  as  fraught  with  pos 
sibilities  of  disaster,  the  effect  of  the  "Globe's"  announce- 

,  *  The  story  of  the  added  paragraph  is  told  in  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 
1  Kendall's  Autobiography,  386.  *  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  266. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  307 

merit  on  Thomas  H.  Benton,  sojourning  with  relatives  in 
Virginia,  was  that  of  a  bugle  blast  to  a  war  charger.  He  felt 
"an  emotion  of  the  moral  sublime  at  beholding  such  an  in 
stance  of  civic  heroism,"  and  that  "a  great  blow  had  been 
struck,  and  that  a  great  contest  must  come  on,  which  could 
only  be  crowned  with  success  by  acting  up  to  the  spirit  with 
which  it  was  commenced."  He  "repaired  to  Washington  at 
the  approach  of  the  session  with  a  full  determination  to  stand 
by  the  President."  1 

The  day  after  the  reading  of  the  Paper,  Jackson  called 
upon  Duane  for  a  decision,  and  the  Secretary  begged  for 
time  to  confer  with  his  venerable  father,  then  en  route  to 
Washington.  The  same  day  Major  Donelson,  the  President's 
secretary,  informed  him  of  the  decision  to  publish  the  Paper 
in  the  "Globe"  on  the  morrow,  and  the  hard-pressed  Minis 
ter  protested  against  such  precipitancy.  This  protest  was 
followed  with  a  letter  to  Donelson  reiterating  his  plea  for 
time,  with  the  assertion  that  if  he  were  President  he  would 
"consult  at  least  reasonably  the  feelings  of  a  man  who  has 
already  anxiety  enough."  2  Jackson  had,  in  fact,  exercised  a 
most  unnatural  restraint  of  his  temper,  and  had  been  re 
markably  considerate  of  his  Minister's  feelings.  Even  be 
fore  the  reading  of  the  Paper,  and  before  Duane  had  made 
his  choice  for  martyrdom,  Jackson  had  opened  a  graceful 
avenue  of  escape  to  the  Legation  at  St.  Petersburg,  but  the 
offer  had  been  declined. 

On  the  21st,  Duane  appeared  at  the  White  House  and  left 
his  written  decision  with  Jackson  personally.  It  is  a  letter 
of  many  words,  evidently  prepared  for  publication.  After 
asserting  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is,  by  the  terms 
of  the  charter,  the  sole  custodian  of  the  public  funds,  he 
finally  reached  his  reasons  for  refusing  to  "carry  your  di- 

1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  379. 

2  These  notes  are  incorporated  in  the  5th  Exhibit  accompanying  Duane's  Address 
to  the  People  of  the  United  States. 


308    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

rections  into  effect."  It  would  be  a  "breach  of  public  faith," 
would  appear  as  "vindictive  and  arbitrary,"  and  "if  the 
Bank  has  abused  or  perverted  its  powers,  the  judiciary  are 
able  and  willing  to  punish."  The  House  of  Representa 
tives  had  declared  the  funds  safe,  and,  if  anything  had  hap 
pened  since  its  report,  "the  representatives  of  the  people, 
chosen  since  your  appeal  to  them  in  your  veto  message, 
will  in  a  few  weeks  assemble."  Again,  "a  change  to  local 
and  irresponsible  banks  will  tend  to  shake  public  confi 
dence,"  and  "it  is  not  sound  policy  to  foster  local  banks." 
And  so  on  with  other  reasons,  including  the  charge  that  "per 
sons  and  presses  known  to  be  in  the  confidence  and  pay  of  the 
Administration"  had  tried  to  intimidate  him.  There  could 
be  no  misunderstanding  of  the  purpose  of  the  letter.  It  was 
written  in  a  spirit  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Administration,  and 
in  the  hope  of  serving  the  moneyed  institution  and  having 
the  service  rewarded.1  Having  thus  insulted  the  President,  he 
withdrew  his  promise  of  July  to  resign  if  unable  to  meet  his 
chief's  views,  and  carefully  pointed  out  that  Jackson  had  the 
power  of  dismissal.  Here  was  a  martyr  zealously  seeking 
the  cross. 

Jackson  immediately  wrote  a  brief,  dignified  reply  to  the 
effect  that  he  could  not  receive  such  a  communication,  nor 
"enter  into  further  discussion  of  the  question."  Rather 
sharply,  the  grim  old  man  reminded  his  subordinate  that  the 
imputation  in  the  latter's  letter  had  no  place  in  a  correspond 
ent  between  a  President  and  a  member  of  his  Cabinet,  that 
the  letter  of  July  offering  to  resign  was  before  him,  and 
brusquely  demanding  a  final  answer.  Early  in  the  afternoon 
Duane  again  took  his  pen  in  hand.  The  result  was  another 
tiresome  letter  concluding  with  a  distinct  refusal  to  issue  the 
order  or  to  resign,  and  impudently  protesting  against  the  in 
terference  of  the  Executive  in  the  affairs  of  a  member  of  the 
Cabinet.  This  second  letter  could  hardly  have  reached  the 
^ l  Kendall  charges  that  Duane  hoped  to  "feather  his  nest."  (Autobiography,  385.) 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  309 

White  House  when  Duane,  seized  with  a  perfect  passion  for 
self-expression,  wrote  a  third  "to  present  another  view." 
The  burden  of  this  epistle  was  that  he  had  been  treated  un 
kindly  by  the  "Globe."  Having  started  this  upon  its  way 
by  messenger,  the  superheated  Secretary  grasped  his  pen  for 
another  effort,  consisting  of  painful  reiterations.  All  these 
letters,  thousands  of  words,  and  pages  of  paper,  were  written 
on  the  21st,  but  with  the  exception  of  the  reply  to  the  first, 
Jackson  ignored  them.  Then,  two  days  later,  Jackson  wrote 
a  short  note,  returning  the  last  two  letters  as  containing 
inaccuracies  and  being  inadmissible,  and  closing  with  a  curt 
dismissal.  Thus  Duane  laid  down  his  pen,  packed  his  belong 
ings,  and  passed  out  of  public  life.1 

The  day  following  Duane's  dismissal,  written  by  Taney, 
Cass  and  McLane  consulted  Jackson  as  to  the  desirability 
of  their  resignations.  This  was  almost  too  much  for  the  old 
warrior's  patience,  and  he  irritably  reminded  them  that  they 
had  been  released  from  responsibility,  and  could  remain  un 
less  they  preferred  to  join  the  Opposition.  The  fire  of  battle 
was  now  in  his  blood,  and  he  had  no  intention  of  parleying 
with  the  timid  in  his  official  household.  Three  days  later, 
Taney  issued  his  famous  order,  McLane  and  Cass  tendered 
their  resignations,  and  Jackson,  in  replying,  followed  Van 
Buren's  suggestion,  and  they  remained. 

On  the  publication  of  the  Paper  in  the  "Globe,"  the  Bank 
summoned  a  meeting  of  the  directors  and  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  take  action.  Writing  from  Boston  to  Biddle, 
Webster  made  the  suggestion,  which  was  adopted,  of  a  memo 
rial  to  Congress.2  This  memorial,  which  referred  to  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States  as  "Andrew  Jackson,"  indicated  a 
disposition  to  consider  the  approaching  struggle  as  between 
"Andrew  Jackson"  and  Nicholas  Biddle,  between  the  Bank 
and  the  Administration,  and  the  ill-advised  arrogance  of  the 

1  He  served  the  Bank  feebly  during  the  fight  that  followed. 

2  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  216.  . 


D 


S10    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIO 

paper  showed  all  too  clearly  that  the  financiers  felt  that  in 
such  a  contest  the  power  and  the  victory  would  be  on  the 
side  of  the  Bank.  And  such  was  the  prestige  of  that  powerful 
corporation  that  not  a  few  Democrats,  including  friends  and 
supporters  of  Jackson,  shared  in  the  feeling.  When  Van  Bu- 
ren  was  authorized  by  Jackson  to  offer  the  attorney-general 
ship  to  Daniel  of  Virginia,  that  timid  lawyer  admitted  that 
his  fears  of  Jackson's  rashness  and  situation  dissuaded  him.1 
It  was  not  until  early  in  November  that  Benjamin  F.  Butler, 
yielding  to  the  personal  persuasion  of  Van  Buren,  accepted 
the  post.  And  to  obtain  his  consent  it  was  necessary  to 
appeal  to  personal  friendship,  private  interest,  pecuniary 
benefit,  and  the  allurements  of  fame.2 
And  almost  immediately  the  storm  broke. 

vn 

"THE  times  will  be  hard,  and  the  struggle  a  great  one," 
wrote  Van  Buren  to  Hamilton,  "but  the  patriotism  and  for 
titude  of  the  people  will  triumph."  3  And  Nicholas  Biddle  did 
not  propose  that  the  inconvenience  should  be  slight.  He  was 
delighted  with  the  order  for  the  removal.  He  was  convinced 
that  out  of  the  distress  in  business  circles  would  come  an  irre 
sistible  demand,  not  only  for  the  restoration  of  the  deposits, 
but  for  the  rechartering  of  the  Bank.  This  last  act  of 
Jackson's  was  the  golden  opportunity.  The  advantage 
would  be  followed.  The  public,  which  had  sustained  Jack 
son  at  the  polls,  was  to  be  punished,  or  "disciplined," 
as  Webster  mildly  described  the  process.  "This  discipline," 
wrote  the  orator  to  Biddle,  who  was  his  client  as  well  as 
his  party  colleague,  "it  appears  to  me,  must  have  very  great 

1  Van  Buren's  first  choice  was  John  Forsyth,  or  some  Southerner,  "if  he  is  a 
speaking  man."   (Autobiography,  606.)  He  tells  of  Daniel's  timidity  in  his  Political 
Parties  in  the  United  States,  322. 

2  See  Van  Buren's  letter  to  Butler,  in  William  Allen  Butler's  A  Retrospect  of 
Forty  Years,  39-43. 

8  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  280, 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  311 

effects  on  the  general  question  of  the  rechartering  of  the 
Bank." 

The  "disciplining"  of  the  people  began  with  the  Bank's 
first  curtailments  on  August  13,  1833,  and  practically  ended 
on  July  11,  1834,  although  it  continued  to  some  extent  until 
September.  The  first  move  —  a  proper  one  —  was  to  issue 
an  order  that  the  amount  of  money  loaned  on  discounts  was 
not  to  be  increased,  and  that  bills  of  exchange  should  be 
drawn  only  at  short  dates  and  on  the  Eastern  offices.  These 
orders  meant  inevitable  contraction,  but  of  the  sort  that 
could  be  justified.  But  immediately  after  Taney  had  issued 
his  order,  the  Bank  adopted  additional  measures  —  the  re 
duction  of  discounts,  the  application  of  the  order  of  restric 
tion  on  the  drawing  of  bills  to  all  the  offices  of  the  Bank,  the 
collection  of  the  balances  against  the  State  banks,  and  the 
restriction  of  the  receipt  of  State  bank  notes.  The  historian 
of  the  Bank  truly  says  that  "on  the  whole,  nothing  but  peril 
to  the  Bank  could  excuse  such  measures."  1  But  even  this 
second  step  seemed  all  too  mild  to  the  officers  and  directors 
in  the  marble  front  building  on  Chestnut  Street,  and  three 
weeks  later  a  third  step  was  taken.  The  branch  banks  in  the 
West  were  ordered  to  persevere  in  "the  course  of  measures 
already  prescribed,"  and  instructed  that  an  extraordinary 
effort  should  be  made  to  keep  down  circulation,  and  to  avoid 
drafts  on  the  northern  Atlantic  offices.2  One  month  later, 
Philip  Hone,  the  New  York  banker  and  business  man,  was 
recording  in  his  diary  that  the  "ill-advised  and  arbitrary 
step  of  the  President"  was  "producing  an  awful  scarcity  of 
money,  with  immediate  distress  and  melancholy  forebodings 
to  the  merchants  and  others  who  require  credit  to  sustain 
them";  and  that  "stocks  of  every  description  have  fallen  — • 
Delaware  and  Hudson  from  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to 
one  hundred  and  fourteen,  Boston  and  Providence  from  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  to  one  hundred  and  three,"  and  that 
.*  Catterall,  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  318.  *  Ibid. 


312    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

"money  cannot  be  had  on  bond  and  mortgage  at  7  per  cent, 
and  I  am  told  that  good  notes  will  hardly  be  discounted  at 
9  per  cent."  1 

Just  about  the  time  Hone  was  recording  these  condi 
tions,  Biddle  was  offering  the  notorious  Samuel  Swartwout, 
the  Jacksonian  Collector  in  New  York,  whose  irregularities 
in  office  were  to  be  unmercifully  exploited  by  the  Whigs,  a 
directorship  in  the  Bank,  and  the  latter,  declining  because  of 
the  onerous  duties  of  his  office,  advised  that  since  "the  Bank's 
power  has  been  shown"  in  the  distress,  it  might  be  well  now 
to  manifest  mercy.2  Where  Niles  had  found  money  scarce 
in  September  and  October  without  being  able  to  conceive  a 
reason,  he  wrote  in  November  of  "a  most  severe  pressure 
for  money"  and  the  prospect  of  a  "collapse  of  business." 
That  month  State  bank  notes  began  to  depreciate  and  loans 
were  at  eighteen  per  cent  per  annum.  With  the  convening 
of  Congress  and  the  President's  uncompromising  Message 
in  December,  Biddle  increased  the  pressure  for  the  purposes 
of  "discipline."  Business  men  were  unable  to  get  credit. 
Factories  were  shutting  down  because  of  the  inability  of 
manufacturers  to  get  loans,  and  laborers  were  thrown  out 
into  the  street.  The  Christmas  season  found  New  York 
"gloomy"  with  "times  bad,"  stocks  still  falling,  and  a  panic 
prevailing  "which  will  result  in  bankruptcies  and  ruin  in 
many  quarters  where,  a  few  short  weeks  ago,  the  sun  of 
prosperity  shone  with  unusual  brightness."  3  And  three  days 
later  the  Lord  Holland  of  the  American  Whigs,  in  his 
misery  and  apprehension,  was  beginning  to  suspect  that  poli 
tics  and  the  Bank,  as  well  as  Jackson's  "ill-advised  and 
arbitrary  step,"  might  be  playing  a  part,  and  concluding 
that  "between  them  both  the  community  groans  under  the 
distress  which  these  misunderstandings  have  created."  "A 
plague  on  both  your  houses,"  he  wrote,  his  impartial  cas- 

1  Diary,  Nov.  18,  1833.  2  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  218. 

«  Hone's  Diary,  Dec.  27,  1833. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  313 

tigation  springing,  perhaps,  from  the  fact  that  he  had  lost 
$20,000.1 

In  January  the  crash  came.  Business  houses  began  to  fail 
in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington,  and  by  the  end 
of  the  month  loans  could  not  be  had  in  New  York  and  Balti 
more  at  less  than  one  and  a  half  per  cent  discount  per  month. 
Wages  decreased,  along  with  prices,  with  laborers  out  of  em 
ployment  and  the  real  estate  values  on  the  slump.  And  at 
this  time,  with  the  Opposition  in  Congress  working  in  hearty 
cooperation  with  the  Bank  to  create  the  fear  that  fed  the 
panic,  Jackson  sat  in  the  White  House  one  Sunday  morning 
writing  to  Hamilton:  "There  is  no  real  distress.  It  is  only 
with  those  who  live  by  borrowing,  trade  on  loans,  and  gam 
blers  in  stocks.  It  would  be  a  godsend  to  society  if  all  such 
were  put  down  ...  I  must  stop.  The  church  bells  are  ring 
ing  and  I  must  attend."  2  This  theory  that  it  would  be  a 
"godsend"  to  rid  the  country  of  the  men  who  live  on  bor 
rowing  was  to  be  used  with  considerable  effect  against  Jack 
son  by  his  congressional  enemies. 

And  at  the  same  time,  Biddle  was  writing  to  the  president 
of  his  Boston  branch  3  that  "the  ties  of  party  allegiance  can 
only  be  broken  by  the  actual  conviction  of  existing  distress," 
and  that  "nothing  but  the  evidence  of  suffering  abroad  will 
produce  any  effect  in  Congress";  and  to  Major  Jack  Down 
ing  in  New  York  that  "if  the  bank  were  to  suffer  itself  to  be 
misled  into  the  measure  of  making  money  plentiful,  it  will 
only  give  to  its  enemies  the  triumph  of  having  robbed  it  with 
impunity."  4  Thus  the  evidence  is  abundant  that  the  Bank 
exerted  its  power  to  the  utmost  to  bring  the  country  to  the 
verge  of  ruin,  and  so  compel  it  to  consent  to  a  recharter.  The 
fact  that  the  majority  of  its  victims  were  among  its  most 
zealous  supporters  did  not  interest  Mr.  Biddle.5  Two  days 

1  Hone's  Diary,  Dec.  30,  1833.  2  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  270. 

3  William  Appleton.  4  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  219. 

6  Catterall  severely  criticizes  the  banker  for  this  attitude;  for  Catterall's  righteous 
sentence  on  this  state  of  mind,  see  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  229. 


314    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

after  writing  the  letter  to  Downing,  Biddle  determined  upon 
a  further  contraction  in  discounts  to  the  amount  of  $3,320,- 
000,  with  orders  that  this  should  be  made  within  thirty  or 
sixty  days,  and  the  largest  reductions  were  to  be  made  in  the 
Western  and  Southwestern  banks.  Not  content  with  this, 
he  made  another  increase  in  the  rates  of  exchange,  and  here 
again  discriminated  frankly  against  the  West.  Thus,  in 
eight  months  the  Bank  planned  a  reduction  in  discounts  to 
the  amount  of  $13,300,000,  which  Catterall  describes  truly 
as  "a  preposterously  large  sum."  1  When  to  this  is  added  the 
further  restrictions  of  as  much  as  $5,000,000  through  the 
breaking  up  of  the  exchange  dealings  of  the  Bank,  the  con 
traction  in  eight  months  amounted  to  at  least  $18,300,000. 

Had  the  Bank  acted  honorably,  there  would  have  been  an 
inevitable  depression  for  the  time  because  of  the  removal 
order,  but  the  panic  was  the  Bank's  panic,  deliberately  con 
ceived,  and  cruelly  produced,  with  the  frankly  avowed  pur 
pose  of  blackmailing  the  American  people  into  granting 
another  charter.  In  his  letter  to  the  president  of  the  Boston 
branch,  Biddle  had  bluntly  confessed  his  purpose.  "I  have 
no  doubt,"  he  wrote,  "that  such  a  course  will  ultimately 
lead  to  a  restoration  of  the  currency,  and  the  recharter  of  the 
Bank."2 

During  this  time  there  were  certain  unscrupulous  specu 
lators,  the  buzzards  of  the  panic,  whispering  commendation 
into  Biddle's  ear  while  feathering  their  own  nests  through 
the  distress  of  the  people.3  But  Webster,  alarmed  at  the 
havoc,  had  urged  Biddle,  through  Horace  Binney ,  "  that  the 
Bank  ought  to  reduce  as  slowly  and  moderately  as  they  can 
—  and  occasionally  to  ease  off  —  where  it  is  requisite  to  pre 
vent  extreme  suffering."  4  This  advice  aroused  the  banker's 
ire  and  resulted  in  no  good.  It  was  Biddle's  idea  that  the 

1  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  321. 

*  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  219.   ! 

*  Notably  James  Watson  Webb. 

4  Binney  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  220. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  315 

Bank's  senatorial  champions,  instead  of  suggesting  a  policy 
of  moderation,  should  be  using  the  distress  as  an  argument 
for  a  new  charter.  "The  relief,"  he  wrote  Joseph  Hopkinson, 
the  distinguished  lawyer  and  jurist,  "to  be  useful  or  per 
manent,  must  come  from  Congress,  and  from  Congress 
alone.  If  that  body  will  do  its  duty,  relief  will  come  —  if  not, 
the  Bank  feels  no  vocation  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  these 
miserable  people.  Rely  upon  that.  This  worthy  President 
thinks  that  because  he  has  scalped  Indians  and  imprisoned 
Judges,  he  is  to  have  his  way  with  the  Bank.  He  is  mis 
taken."  1 

VIII 

MEANWHILE  the  Bank  was  encouraging,  inspiring,  arranging 
indignation  meetings  of  the  people,  where  Jackson  was  ar 
raigned  for  bringing  ruin  upon  the  community,  and  petitions 
were  drawn  asking  for  the  restoration  of  the  deposits.  Clay, 
eager  to  lash  the  people  into  fury,  had  suggested  the  plan. 
"It  would  be  well,"  he  wrote,  "to  have  a  general  meeting  of 
the  people  to  memorialize  Congress  in  favor  of  a  restoration 
of  the  deposits.  Such  an  example  [in  Philadelphia]  might  be 
followed  elsewhere;  and  it  would  be  more  influential  as  it 
might  be  more  general."  2  The  artificial  nature  of  many  of 
the  petitions  was  well  understood  by  the  Jackson  leaders,  and 
the  usually  elegant  John  Forsyth  had  referred  to  them  in  the 
Senate  as  "these  pot-house  memorials,"  much  to  the  aston 
ishment  of  Adams.3  These  petitions,  according  to  the  plan, 
were,  in  many  instances,  taken  to  Washington  by  committees 
that  waited  upon  the  President  before  presenting  them  to 
Congress.  Here  they  were  presented  in  lugubrious  speeches 
calculatingly  designed  further  to  fan  the  fears  of  the  people 
and  keep  the  panic  going.  When  the  New  York  merchants 
adopted  a  memorial  and  secured  the  signatures  of  three 

1  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  222.  *  Ibid.,  218. 

8  Memoirs,  April  14,  1834. 


316    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

thousand  people,  Tammany  Hall  ordered  meetings  in  every 
ward  in  the  city  to  approve  of  Jackson's  actions.1  A  few  days 
later,  between  twelve  and  fifteen  thousand  friends  of  "sound 
currency  by  means  of  a  national  bank "  met  at  noon  in  the 
park.  When  Hone,  selected  to  preside,  reached  the  park,  he 
found  an  "immense  crowd"  composed  in  large  part  "of  the 
most  respectable  mechanics  and  others  of  the  city  —  men  of 
character,  respectability,  and  personal  worth,  with  a  few  mis 
creants  who  went,  perhaps,  of  their  own  accord,  but  were 
probably  sent  there  to  excite  disturbances."  In  truth,  "the 
rabble  had  gotten  possession  of  the  chair,"  and  it  required 
"some  hard  thumps"  from  the  men  of  character,  respect 
ability,  and  personal  worth  to  clear  the  way  sufficiently  for 
the  presiding  genius  of  the  Whig  dinner  table  to  reach  the 
platform.  When  he  attempted  to  speak,  the  "yells  of  the 
mob"  rendered  all  the  chairman's  efforts  "unavailing";  so 
he  "put  the  question  upon  the  resolutions  which  were  car 
ried  by  an  immense  majority,"  and  the  meeting  adjourned. 
Unhappily  the  "mob"  did  not  disperse  for  some  time  after 
wards.2 

When  these  committees,  composed  of  bitter  enemies  of  the 
President,  began  to  pour  into  the  capital  and  knock  at  the 
White  House  door,  they  were  received,  at  first,  with  urbanity 
and  heard  with  patience.  The  committeemen,  however, 
carried  back  "grossly  colored"  stories  of  the  interviews,  and 
Jackson  thereafter  decided  to  hear  and  dismiss  them  without 
discussion.3  In  these  stories  Jackson  is  pictured  as  raving 
and  ranting,  spluttering  and  spouting  imprecations  and  pro 
fanity.  McMaster,  however,  accepts  as  true  that  he  received 
these  committees  "with  that  stately  courtesy  for  which  he 
was  so  justly  distinguished,"  and  concludes  from  the  evi 
dence  that  he  "soon  began  to  lecture  them."  4  In  these  lec 
tures  Jackson  is  reported  to  have  told  the  committees  to  "go 

1  Hone's  Diary.  Jan.  28,  1834.  *  Ibid.,  Feb.  7,  1834. 

»  Kendall's  Autobiography,  411.  4  History  of  the  United  States,  iv.  201. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  317 

to  the  Bank"  or  to  "go  to  Biddle"  for  relief.  No  less  an 
authority  than  Catterall  has  concluded  that  he  was  not  far 
wrong.  On  one  occasion  he  did  use  extreme  language  to  a 
committee  which  implied  the  threat  of  rebellion.  "If  that 
be  your  game,"  he  exclaimed,  "come  with  your  armed  Bank 
mercenaries,  and,  by  the  Eternal,  I  will  hang  you  around  the 
Capitol  on  gallows  higher  than  Haman."  1  There  is  no  doubt 
that  he  did  harangue  the  committees  with  bitter  denuncia 
tions  of  "The  Monster"  and  properly  ascribed  a  large  part 
of  the  distress  to  the  deliberate  purpose  of  the  Bank  to 
"discipline"  the  Nation.  Some  historians  have  suggested 
that  these  outbursts  were  staged,  and  it  is  recorded  as  a  fact 
by  Henry  A.  Wise,  the  brilliant  Virginia  Whig.  "When  a 
Bank  committee  would  come  .  .  ."he  writes,  "he  would 
lay  down  his  pipe,  rise  to  the  full  height  of  his  stature  and 
voice,  and  seem  to  foam  at  the  mouth  whilst  declaiming 
vehemently  against  the  dangers  of  money  monopoly.  The 
committee  would  retire  in  disgust,  thinking  they  were  leav 
ing  a  mad  man,  and  as  soon  as  they  were  gone,  he  would 
resume  his  pipe,  and,  chuckling,  say,  'They  thought  I  was 
mad/  and  coolly  comment  on  the  policy  of  never  never  com 
promising  a  vital  issue."  2  This  interpretation  of  Jackson's 
tempests  and  whirlwinds  of  passion,  coming  from  a  severe 
critic  of  his  Bank  policy,  is  the  most  dependable  of  all  the 
opinions  that  have  been  expressed  by  friend  or  foe. 

IX 

AND  while  the  committees  may  have  hooted  the  idea  that 
the  Bank  was  responsible  for  the  severity  and  continuance 
of  the  panic,  it  very  slowly  began  to  dawn  upon  the  New  York 
merchants  that  possibly  the  "Emperor  Nicholas"  might  be 
able  to  alleviate  conditions  without  in  the  least  compromis 
ing  the  safety  of  the  Bank.  Some  of  his  champions  were  slow 
to  realize  or  loath  to  concede  this  declining  popularity.  In 

1  Kendall's  Autobiography,  412.  .8  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  107. 


318    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

February  the  bankers  and  merchants  of  New  York  appointed 
a  committee  to  wait  upon  him  and  urge  a  suspension  of  the 
contraction,  and  Albert  Gallatin,  former  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  pointedly  warned  him  that  the  committee  was 
satisfied  of  his  ability  to  grant  relief,  and  would  so  report  to 
the  New  York  merchants.  Thus  cornered  and  threatened 
with  the  desertion  of  its  friends,  the  Bank  finally  agreed  that 
up  to  May  1st  there  should  be  no  further  contraction.  This 
was  a  fatal  concession  in  that  it  was  a  confession  that  relief 
had  been  previously  deliberately  denied.1  Even  such  cham 
pions  of  the  Bank  as  James  Watson  Webb  found  real 
cause  for  melancholy  complaint  in  heavy  losses  in  Bank 
stock,  and  we  find  him  whining  that  he  had  lost  all  except 
his  paper,  and  that  other  speculators,  including  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Jr.,  had  been  among  the  victims. 

Thus  the  drift  against  the  Bank,  which  began  when  Gover 
nor  Wolf  of  Pennsylvania  denounced  its  actions  in  his  Mes 
sage  to  the  Legislature,  increased  alarmingly.  The  fact  that 
the  Governor  had  been  a  firm  supporter  gave  tremendous 
weight  to  his  act.  The  friends  of  the  institution  were  stunned, 
and,  as  we  shall  see  a  little  later,  the  Governor  was  bitterly 
denounced  and  warmly  defended  in  the  Senate.  Thus  the 
advice  of  Jackson  to  "see  Biddle,"  so  mirthfully  related 
by  the  committees  at  the  time,  and  so  much  ridiculed  by 
some  historians  since,  was  demonstrating  its  wisdom.  One 
month  after  Wolf  acted,  Governor  Marcy  of  New  York 
imitated  his  example  with  the  recommendation  of  a  State 
plan  of  relief.  His  proposal  to  issue  $6,000,000  of  five  per  cent 
State  stock  to  be  loaned  to  State  banks  was  adopted. 

The  Bank,  in  its  game  of  "disciplining"  the  people,  had 
vastly  overplayed  its  hand,  and,  by  its  cruel,  implacable 
policy  of  ruining  friends  as  well  as  foes,  had  begun  to  lose 
ground  in  the  late  winter  and  early  spring.  Even  among  the 
ultra-conservatives  of  business,  the  feeling  was  germinating 
1  Catterall's  view,  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  344. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  319 

that  Jackson  was  not  far  wrong  in  the  conclusion  that  a 
moneyed  institution  possessing  the  power  to  precipitate 
panics  to  influence  governmental  action,  was  dangerous  to 
the  peace,  prosperity,  and  liberty  of  the  people. 

X 

BUT  the  politicians  in  the  Congress  were  the  last  to  see  the 
drift.  Long  after  the  bankers  and  merchants  had  lost  interest 
in  the  fate  of  Biddle's  Bank,  they  continued  their  fight  in  its 
behalf  throughout  the  most  bitter  congressional  session  the 
Republic  had  ever  known.  The  actions  of  the  Bank,  the  tu 
mult  of  the  market-places,  the  proceedings  of  the  merchants, 
are  all  intimately  interwoven  with  the  activities  of  the 
Bank's  champions  in  House  and  Senate.  There  the  last  stand 
was  taken,  there  the  battle  was  definitely  lost.  And  there  the 
most  dramatic  feature  of  the  fight  was  staged.  It  was  at  this 
juncture  that  three  important  figures,  not  hitherto  intimately 
identified  with  or  against  the  Administration,  moved  to  the 
firing  line.  Thomas  H.  Benton  assumed  the  leadership  of  the 
Jacksonian  forces,  and  Clay's  fighters  were  brilliantly  aug 
mented  by  the  advent  of  two  Senators,  William  Campbell 
Preston  of  South  Carolina,  and  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh  of 
Virginia. 

The  complete  harmony  between  Benton's  views  and  Jack 
son's  actions  in  the  Bank  controversy  has  given  an  over 
shadowing  prominence  to  his  leadership.  For  thirty  years  he 
was  a  constructive  force  in  legislation,  associating  his  name 
with  more  important  measures  written  into  law  than  Clay, 
Webster,  and  Calhoun  combined.  In  the  Senate  his  faults  of 
mannerism,  his  arrogance,  and  stupendous  conceit,  together 
with  the  interminable  length  of  his  speeches  and  his  diffusive 
tendencies,  served  to  overshadow  his  very  substantial  con 
tributions  to  the  discussions.  The  fact  that  the  Chamber 
emptied  and  the  galleries  cleared  when  he  arose  did  not  dis 
turb  him  in  the  least.  He  spoke  from  the  Chamber  to  the 


320    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

country,  and  his  carefully  prepared  speeches,  especially  dur 
ing  the  Bank  fight,  were  treatises  intended  for  the  education 
of  the  people.  His  personal  life  was  above  reproach.  His 
austerity,  his  imposing  dignity,  discouraged  attempts  at  inti 
macy  in  a  day  when  men  loved  conviviality  and  were  a  trifle 
lax  in  their  morals.  He  was  one  of  the  colossal  figures  of  Amer 
ican  politics  and  he  never  loomed  larger  than  in  his  fight  for 
Jackson. 

William  C.  Preston,  fresh  from  oratorical  triumphs  in  the 
Nullification  contest,  entered  the  Senate  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
eight.  Few  have  made  a  more  favorable  debut  in  that  body. 
His  fame  as  an  orator  had  preceded  him,  and  Clay's  plans 
had  dedicated  the  panic  session  to  perfervid  oratory.  It  is 
impossible  to  understand,  from  his  speeches  in  the  "Con 
gressional  Globe,"  the  extravagant  enthusiasm  of  so  stern 
a  critic  as  Adams.  But  we  cannot  discount  the  common 
verdict  of  his  contemporaries  who  considered  him  one  of 
the  most  consummate  of  orators,  and  "one  of  the  great 
est  rhetoricians  and  declaimers  of  his  generation."  1  From 
another  we  learn  that  "many  thought  him  the  most  finished 
orator  the  South  had  produced,"  and  that  he  "could  arouse 
his  audiences  to  enthusiasm,  and  then  move  them  to  tears."  2 
Not  least  among  the  truimphs  of  his  art  was  his  power  to 
sway  a  mob  in  the  street  as  well  as  move  the  case-hardened 
critics  of  the  Senate  house.  Poet  and  painter,  as  he  was,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  in  the  heat  of  advocacy  his  feelings  often 
predominated  over  his  judgment,  and  his  superheated  im 
agination  sometimes  led  him  beyond  the  realms  of  reality, 
but  these  very  weaknesses  were  to  delight  the  enemies  of  the 
Jackson  Administration,  led  to  the  daily  assault  by  Clay. 
Thus,  in  his  first  year  in  the  Senate,  he  took  his  place,  far  in 
advance  of  most  of  his  colleagues,  and  side  by  side  with  Clay, 
Webster,  Calhoun,  and  Clayton. 

In  addition  to  Preston,  the  Opposition  was  to  be  further 

1  Laborde.  *  Wilson's  Washington  the  Capital  City,  i,  244. 


JACKSON  VS.  BIDDLE  321 

strengthened  by  the  arrival  with  the  panic  session  of  Leigh. 
Intellectually,  he  was  one  of  the  strongest  men  in  a  State 
of  strong  men,  and  at  the  bar  he  was  recognized  as  a  great 
constitutional  and  civil  lawyer.  As  an  orator,  he  was  fluent, 
fiery,  intense,  impressive.  Wise,  who  was  himself  no  mean 
master  of  English,  has  described  him  as  "a  purist  in  his 
Anglo-Saxon,"  and  as  having  a  style  "equal  to  that  of  the 
Elizabethan  age  of  English  literature."  1  Like  Prentiss,  he 
was  a  small  man  who  loomed  large  when  speaking,  and,  like 
him,  too,  he  had  one  short  leg  and  wore  a  cork  on  the  sole  of 
his  shoe.  Unlike  Prentiss,  he  capitalized  his  infirmity  ora- 
torically.  Wise  found  that,  while  his  mannerisms  were  not 
graceful,  they  "always  excited  sympathy  for  his  infirmity." 
His  voice,  which  was  no  small  part  of  his  oratorical  equip 
ment,  has  been  described  as  "clear,  soft,  flute-like,  not  loud, 
but  like  murmuring  music."  2  His  manner,  his  speaking 
method,  his  very  appearance,  fitted  in  well  with  Clay's  pro 
gramme  of  dramatic,  lugubrious  oratory,  and  he  at  once 
moved  to  his  place  beside  the  panic  orators,  and  played  a 
conspicuous  and  theatrical  part. 

Thus,  with  the  panic  at  its  flood,  with  Benton  moving  to 
the  front  of  the  Administration  forces,  and  with  Clay's  ora 
torical  battery  strengthened,  it  is  time  to  look  in  upon  the 
Senate.  A 

1  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union.  *  Ibid. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS 
I 

FROM  the  moment  Congress  convened,  it  was  evident  that 
the  session  was  to  witness  the  most  bitter  party  battle  ever 
waged.  This  was  inevitable  because  of  the  realignments  of 
the  previous  session,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Bank.  The  coali 
tion  between  Clay  and  Calhoun  gave  the  Opposition  a  clear 
majority  in  the  Senate.  It  was  common  gossip  four  days 
after  Congress  was  called  to  order  that  "the  understanding 
between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun  "  gave  the  Opposition  all 
the  numerical  advantage.1  This  was  thoroughly  understood 
by  Jackson,  Taney,  Kendall,  and  Blair,  and  all  public  papers 
regarding  the  removal  of  the  deposits  were  accordingly 
framed  as  appeals  to  the  people,  rather  than  to  the  bodies  to 
which  they  were  addressed.  The  Presidential  Message,  in 
touching  upon  this  topic,  was  a  campaign  document  and  a 
challenge.  Taney's  forceful  report  submitting  reasons  for 
the  removal  was  a  defiance,  and  a  clarion  call  to  the  people 
in  the  corn  rows,  the  villages,  and  the  factories.  Thus  Jackson 
and  his  friends  forced  the  fighting  from  the  beginning. 

Clay  led  the  onslaught  with  a  resolution  calling  upon 
Taney  for  a  report  on  the  new  depositories.  "I  want  to 
inquire  where  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  is,"  he 
explained  ironically.  The  bristling  Ben  ton  instantly  moved 
a  reference  to  committee.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
had  "charged  the  Bank  distinctly  with  interfering  with  the 
purity  of  elections,  with  corrupting  and  subsidizing  the  press, 
with  dishonoring  its  own  paper  and  that  of  its  branches," 
and  these  "charges  of  great  criminality"  should  be  investi- 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  6,  1833. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      323 

gated.  Affecting  to  ignore  Benton,  Clay  followed  with 
another  resolution  calling  upon  the  President  to  say  whether 
the  Paper,  "alleged"  to  have  been  read  to  the  Cabinet,  was 
genuine,  and  if  so,  to  lay  a  copy  before  the  Senate.  This  was 
a  stupid  tactical  blunder,  and  John  Forsyth,  with  his  suave 
courtesy,  which  was  not  always  as  innocent  as  it  seemed, 
inquired  the  purpose  of  the  "unusual"  call.  Clay's  reply 
was  a  quibble.  The  Paper  had  been  published  as  having  been 
read  by  the  President,  and  even  promulgated  through  the 
press,  and  he,  for  one,  refused  to  assume  that  it  was  genuine. 

"If  I  understand  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,"  pressed 
the  courtly  Forsyth,  "he  admits  that  with  the  intercourse 
between  the  President  and  his  Cabinet  we  have  nothing 
to  do." 

"I  make  no  admission,"  snapped  Clay. 

It  was  then  that  Forsyth  revealed  the  theory  on  which  the 
Administration  forces  were  to  proceed.  Why  could  not  Clay 
indicate  the  purpose  which  impelled  him?  he  asked.  Was  it 
for  the  purpose  of  impeachment?  Then  the  call  should  have 
originated  in  the  House,  not  the  Senate.  "When  the  Presi 
dent  should  be  brought  to  our  bar,  and  put  on  trial  for  his 
violation  of  the  Constitution,  that  paper  would  be  produced 
in  support  of  the  charge,"  he  continued.  But  why  should 
the  Senate  call  for  it?  It  was  accessible  for  all  purposes  of 
argument.  He  could  understand  the  resolution  only  "as  a 
desire  to  prompt  the  other  House  to  proceedings  by  im 
peachment,  and  to  condemn  the  President  in  advance."  But 
after  Clay  had  reiterated  the  absurd  explanation  that  he 
merely  sought  authentic  verification  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  Paper,  the  resolution  was  adopted.1  The  response 
of  Jackson  was  immediately  made  in  a  dignified  and  unan 
swerable  note  of  refusal.  "As  well  might  I  be  required  to 
detail  to  the  Senate  the  free  and  private  conversations  I  have 
held  with  those  officers  on  any  subject  relating  to  their 

1  Cong.  Globe,  i,  20-21. 


324    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

duties,"  he  said.1  It  was  a  sharp  rebuke,  richly  merited, 
and  left  Clay  in  an  unenviable  position. 

The  next  brush  came  in  the  prompt  rejection  by  the  Sen 
ate  of  the  nominations  of  the  Government  directors  who  had 
furnished  the  report  on  which  Jackson  had  based  his  charge 
of  wrongdoing.  The  moment  their  names  were  sent  to  the 
Senate,  Biddle  began  to  deluge  his  senatorial  friends  with 
demands  for  their  rejection.  "They  are  unfit  to  be  there  [on 
the  board],"  he  wrote  Webster;  "unfit  to  associate  with  the 
other  members."  2  In  the  Bank  circles  they  were  denounced 
as  "spies,"  and  thus,  in  response  to  the  demand  of  Biddle, 
they  were  rejected.  Such  was  the  intimacy  of  the  relation 
between  the  party  of  the  Opposition  and  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  The  sinister  nature  of  this  relationship  is 
painfully  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Daniel  Webster,  who, 
two  weeks  after  the  opening  of  the  session,  had  written 
Biddle  of  his  rejection  of  a  professional  employment  against 
the  Bank,  with  the  bald  suggestion  that  "I  believe  my 
retainer  has  not  been  renewed  or  refreshed  as  usual,"  and 
that  "if  it  be  wished  that  my  relation  to  the  Bank  should  be 
continued,  it  may  be  well  to  send  me  the  usual  retainers."  3 

Thus  the  first  days  of  the  session  were  passed  in  maneuver 
ing  for  position,  with  frequent  incidents  of  a  petty  nature 
indicative  of  the  rancorous  party  spirit  of  the  times.  Having 
observed  the  unobtrusive  figure  of  Major  Lewis,  that  most 
consummate  of  politicians  and  presidential  reporters,  moving 
about  the  floor  of  the  House,  Richard  Henry  Wilde,  poet  and 
politician,  Nullifier  and  WThig,  framed  a  resolution  to  exclude 
him,  but  it  was  defeated.4  Meanwhile  Clay  was  busy  map 
ping  his  campaign,  preparing  the  resolutions  on  which  he 
proposed  to  make  the  issue.  The  Opposition  leaders  were 
clearly  embarrassed  in  determining  their  course  of  action. 

1  Cong.  Globe,  23.  2  Written  Dec.  30,  1833,  and  quoted  by  Catterall. 

8  Webster  to  Biddle,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  218. 
4  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  19,  1833. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      325 

Webster  appealed  to  Justice  Story,  the  scholarly  associate  of 
John  Marshall,  for  an  opinion  on  the  legal  phases;  and  writ 
ing  from  Cambridge  that  great  jurist  would  not  advise  that 
the  deposits  could  not  be  legally  withdrawn  unless  danger  to 
their  security  was  involved,  but  he  advanced  the  theory  on 
which  the  Bank  champions  acted  —  that  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  did  not  become  custodian  of  the  funds  by 
virtue  of  his  position  in  the  Cabinet,  but  held  them  as 
a  "personal  trust,  and  as  much  so  as  if  confided  to  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States."  Thus  he  furnished  the  Op 
position  with  the  opinion  it  required.  The  President  had  no 
right  to  interfere;  more  —  if  he  did  interfere,  and  the  Secre 
tary  submitted  against  his  own  judgment,  he  violated  his 
trust;  and  the  State  banks  had  no  proper  authority  to  take 
over  the  deposits.1  Unhappily,  the  learned  jurist  failed  to 
take  the  next  necessary  step,  and  conclude  that  the  President 
had  no  power  to  remove  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

And  it  was  just  this  queer  opinion  that  Clay  was  zealously 
seeking.  About  the  time  Webster  was  appealing  t  j  Story  for 
the  elucidation  of  legal  points,  Clay  was  writing  to  former 
Senator  Tazewell  at  Norfolk,  a  great  constitutional  lawyer, 
inquiring  as  to  whether  or  not  Jackson  had  transcended  his 
power  in  dismissing  Duane.  It  must  have  been  with  some 
embarrassment  that  he  read  the  Virginian's  reply,  that  to 
him  it  was  "manifestly  absurd  to  regard  the  President  as 
responsible  for  the  acts  of  subordinate  agents,  and  yet  to 
deny  him  the  uncontrolled  power  of  supervising  them,  and 
removing  them  from  office  whenever  they  had  lost  his  con 
fidence."  2  This  opinion,  however,  did  not  deter  some 
statesmen  from  advancing  the  idea  that  Tazewell  had  con 
temptuously  rejected. 

But  the  position  of  Story  was  accepted,  and  Clay  sub 
mitted  his  resolutions  censuring  the  President,  and  holding 

1  Story  to  Webster,  Life  and  Letters  of  -Story,  n,  156-58. 
8  Clay's  Works,  v.  379. 


326    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  reasons  given  by  Taney  for  the  removal  "unsatisfactory 
and  insufficient."  Thus  the  decks  were  cleared  for  action. 
The  real  fight  began  in  the  debate  that  day  upon  these  resolu 
tions,  and  upon  these,  and  others  growing  out  of  them,  the 
verbal  battle,  which  at  times  threatened  to  be  other  than 
bloodless,  raged  with  intemperate  fury  for  seven  months. 

n 

NEVER  up  to  that  time,  nor  again  for  more  than  a  genera 
tion,  did  Congress  so  completely  hold  the  interest  of  the 
country.  The  great  orators  of  the  Opposition  never  shone 
with  greater  luster,  and  by  their  impassioned  eloquence,  and 
not  a  little  of  consummate  histrionics,  they  persuaded  their 
followers,  if  not  themselves,  that  they  were  actually  fighting 
the  battle  of  liberty  against  despotism.  The  Democrats 
contended,  on  the  defensive,  that  Jackson  had  the  right 
to  dismiss  Duane,  and  that  Taney  had  the  legal  right  to 
order  the  removal. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  little  city  of  Washington,  with 
all  its  interests  revolving  about  the  performances  at  the 
Capitol,  should  have  poured  forth  its  people  daily  to  pack 
the  galleries  and  crowd  the  lobbies.  The  Senate  Chamber 
became  the  peacock  alley  of  fashion  —  they  who  met  at  the 
dinner  or  the  dance  the  night  before  mingled  there  in  the  day 
time.  The  debate  drew  many  from  other  sections,  and  the 
belles  of  country  places  and  remote  towns  helped  to  crowd 
the  Chamber  to  suffocation.1  In  the  fashionable  character 
of  the  gallery  audiences  we  catch  the  hostility  of  the  aristoc 
racy  to  the  President  and  his  party.  The  distress  commit 
tees  with  their  petitions  were  wont  to  pack  the  galleries 
"applauding  the  speakers  against  the  President  —  saluting 
with  noise  and  confusion  those  who  spoke  on  his  side."  2 
Confirmation  of  such  scenes  are  to  be  found  in  the  official 

1  Mrs.  Smith,  in  First  Forty  Years,  touches  on  this  feature. 
*  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  424. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      327 

report  of  the  proceedings.1  It  has  been  the  fashion  to  refer 
to  the  Jacksonians  as  the  "rabble"  and  the  "mob,"  and  as 
partaking  of  the  nature  of  the  Jacobins,  but  throughout  the 
Bank  fight  the  "mob"  in  the  galleries,  resorting  to  the  Jac 
obin  methods  of  hissing  and  cheering  the  proceedings  on  the 
floor,  were  largely  confined  to  the  enemies  of  the  President. 
The  debate  on  the  Clay  resolutions  had  scarcely  begun 
when  the  daily  arrival  of  distress  petitions  furnished  a  di 
version  in  the  Senate.  The  memorials  were  lugubrious 
recitals  of  wreck  and  ruin,  and  pathetic  appeals  for  the  res 
toration  of  the  deposits.  Frequently  presented  by  commit 
tees,  the  bearers  repaired  to  the  gallery  to  give  sympathetic 
ear  to  the  mournful  speeches  of  the  Senators  to  whom  their 
petitions  had  been  entrusted.  There  was  a  marked  similarity 
in  the  petitions,  and  an  even  more  striking  resemblance  in 
the  speeches.  The  burden  of  both  was  that  the  happiness  of 
a  prosperous  community  had  been  struck  down  by  a  tyrant, 
and  that  nothing  but  the  restoration  of  the  deposits  could 
end  the  agony.  That  the  action  of  such  men  as  Clay,  Web 
ster,  and  Calhoun,  in  picturing  in  lurid  and  exaggerated 
colors  the  distress  of  the  moment,  and  predicting  even  greater 
calamities,  was  calculated  to  frighten  the  timid  and  create 
panic  must  have  been  understood  by  them.  At  any  rate, 
these  petitions  were  part  of  the  leaders'  plan.2  This  phase  of 
the  fight  developed  with  the  presentation  of  Clay's  resolu 
tion  to  "inquire  into  the  expediency  of  affording  temporary 
relief  to  the  community  from  the  present  pecuniary  embar 
rassments  by  prolonging  the  payment  of  revenue  bonds  as 
they  fall  due."  This  resolution  opened  the  way  for  Clay's 
first  "distress  speech."  And  Forsyth,  who  was  something  of 
a  cynic  in  his  way,  saw  no  objection  to  the  resolution,  pro 
vided  it  were  amended  by  instructing  the  committee  "to  in 
quire  into  the  extent  and  causes  of  the  alleged  distress  of  the 

1  Cong.  Globe,  i,  74  and  123. 

1  Van  Buren  vividly  describes  these  scenes,  in  bis  Autobiography,  726-27. 


328    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

community,  and  into  the  propriety  of  legislative  interfer 
ence  to  relieve  them."  The  proposal  of  the  amendment  gave 
Forsyth  the  opportunity  to  present  the  Administration's 
opinion  of  the  panic.  He  had  no  doubt  that  there  was  dis 
tress,  but  it  had  been  greatly  exaggerated.  "Whence  does  it 
arise?"  he  asked.  "From  the  conflict  —  the  war  that  the 
Bank  is  waging  to  get  the  deposits  back.  The  deposits  have 
been  removed.  The  Bank  stands  still  to  see  what  will  follow, 
and  it  stands  still,  too,  that  its  power  may  be  felt  in  every 
nerve  and  fiber  of  the  community  —  and  every  man  shall 
feel  the  necessity  of  the  institution."  1 

Thus  the  panic  speeches  began.  "There  sits  Mr.  Biddle," 
rather  stupidly  exclaimed  one  Senator,  presenting  a  petition, 
"in  the  presidency  of  the  Bank,  as  calm  as  a  summer's  morn 
ing,  with  his  directors  around  him,  receiving  his  salary,  with 
everything  moving  on  harmoniously;  and  has  this  strike 
reached  him?  No,  sir.  The  blow  has  fallen  on  the  friends  of 
the  President  and  the  country."  2  Thus  did  one  Opposition 
leader  rejoice  in  the  serenity  of  the  Bank  and  its  president 
in  the  midst  of  the  distress  of  his  country. 

Very  early  the  friends  of  the  Administration  took  their 
cue  from  its  enemies,  and  began  to  flood  the  Senate  with 
memorials  against  the  Bank.  Thus  day  by  day  the  proceed 
ings  were  opened  by  the  reading  of  petitions,  followed  by 
speeches  on  the  "distress,"  and  replies  belittling  the  panic. 
Mr.  Clay's  heart  was  wrung  by  news  of  the  distress  in  Sa 
vannah  and  Augusta;  whereupon  Mr.  Forsyth  rose  to  deny 
that  there  was  distress  in  those  cities.  "I  know  the  indi 
viduals,"  he  said.  "  They  are  highly  respectable  men  —  mer 
chants  and  members  of  the  Bar.  They  are  friends  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States."  3  A  New  Jersey  Senator,  op 
posed  to  the  Administration,  presented  conflicting  petitions 
from  his  State,  with  the  Jackson  petitions  numerically  the 

1  Cong.  Globe,  i,  101.  8  Senator  Frelinghuysen.  Cong.  Globe,  1, 129. 

»  Cong.  Globe,  i.  203. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      329 

stronger.  Ah,  laughed  Forsyth,  "from  the  State  of  New 
Jersey  we  have  three  cheers  for  one  groan."  1  When  an  Op 
position  Senator  presented  a  petition  from  Portsmouth  with 
a  doleful  tale,  Senator  Isaac  Hill  killed  the  effect  by  explaining 
the  dubious  manner  in  which  the  signatures  had  been  ob 
tained.  And  when,  a  little  later,  Hill  undertook  to  present  a 
petition  of  the  New  Hampshire  Legislature  against  the  Bank, 
Webster  moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table.  In  truth  the  actions 
of  legislatures  were  beginning  to  annoy  the  panic-breeders. 
Maine,  New  York,  New  Hampshire,  and  other  States  had 
spoken  in  support  of  Jackson's  policy.  It  became  necessary 
to  devote  more  attention  to  that  end  of  the  petition  business. 
"What  is  doing  in  your  legislature  about  the  deposits?" 
Clay  wrote  to  his  friend,  Judge  Brooke  of  Virginia.  "We 
want  all  aid  here  on  that  subject  which  can  be  given  us  from 
Richmond."  2  And  when  the  Legislature  acted,  John  Tyler 
lost  all  patience  with  the  Governor  for  not  sending  the  peti 
tion  on  at  once.  "The  resolutions  of  the  legislature  have  not 
yet  reached  me,"  he  wrote  impatiently  to  Mrs.  Tyler,  "nor 
can  I  conceive  what  Floyd  is  after  that  he  does  not  forward 
them."  3  They  arrived  in  time,  and  Webster  did  not  move 
to  lay  them  on  the  table. 

Then,  with  the  effect  of  a  bomb  exploding  among  the  Bank 
champions,  came  the  message  of  Governor  Wolf  of  Penn 
sylvania,  denouncing  the  Bank  for  responsibility  for  the  de 
pression.  Clay  lost  no  time  in  denouncing  him  as  a  man  wor 
shiper,  albeit  the  Governor  had  previously  favored  the  Bank. 
Another  Bank  Senator  rushed  forward  with  a  resolution 
"disapproving  the  vacillating  or  time-serving  policy  of  the 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania,"  while  Forsyth  and  others  criti 
cized  the  taste  of  the  proceedings.4 

Thus  the  battle  of  the  petitions  went  merrily  on,  some 
spontaneous,  most  inspired  by  the  Bank  agents,  while  the 

1  Cong.  Globe,  I,  228.  2  Clay's  Works,  v,  377. 

8  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  484.  «  Cong.  Globe,  i.  344. 


330    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

conflicting  memorials  were  conceived  to  offset  the  intended 
effect.  As  the  weeks  extended  into  months,  and  the  depres 
sion  began  to  lift,  extraordinary  efforts  were  made  to  reawaken 
the  country  against  the  "tyrant  in  the  White  House."  Web 
ster  harangued  a  crowd  in  New  York  City;  but  the  major 
part  of  the  platform  propaganda  work  was  assigned  to 
McDuffie,  who  better  than  most  men  knew  how  to  "ride  on 
the  whirlwind  and  direct  the  storm";  to  Preston,  who  could 
arouse  men  to  frenzy  or  move  them  to  tears;  and  to  Poin- 
dexter,  who  was  a  veritable  fire-eater.  These  three  consum 
mate  mob-baiters  set  forth  on  a  journey  that  took  them 
to  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York.  The  orators 
reached  Baltimore  on  Sunday.  But  no  matter;  as  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel  piously  said,  "in  revolutionary  times  there 
were  no  Sabbaths,"  and  the  meeting  was  held.  It  was  on 
this  occasion  that  McDufBe,  with  the  true  spirit  of  the  dema 
gogue,  solemnly  discussed  the  "rumor"  that  Jackson,  the 
tyrant,  might  attempt  to  dismiss  Congress  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  and  promised  that  "ten  days  after  the  entrance  of 
the  soldiers  into  the  Senate  Chamber,  to  send  the  Senators 
home,  200,000  volunteers  would  be  in  Washington."  1 

Meanwhile  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  was  capitalizing  all  the 
intemperate  attacks  upon  Jackson,  and  Blair  was  publishing 
letters  in  the  "Globe"  threatening  the  life  of  the  President 
if  he  did  not  restore  the  deposits.  One  of  these  recited  that 
three  young  men  in  New  York  had  been  selected  to  "pro 
ceed  in  the  course  of  the  present  month  to  the  capital,  there 
to  put  in  execution  the  design  entrusted  to  their  hands."  2 

III 

SUCH,  however,  were  the  side  issues  of  the  session.  The  real 
fight  was  waged  on  Clay's  resolutions  to  censure,  and  later 
on  the  President's  Protest.  Clay  opened  the  debate  on  the 
censure  resolutions  in  a  three-days  speech  bristling  with 
1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View.  I.  422.  *  Washington  Globe,  Feb.  13,  1834, 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      331 

extravagant  invective  —  a  tremendous  philippic,  not  only 
against  Jackson's  Bank  policy,  but  against  his  entire  pres 
idential  career.  Intended  to  serve  outside  the  Senate  Cham 
ber  in  alarming  the  people,  his  appeal  was  to  the  passions  and 
the  fears  of  the  multitude.  The  central  idea  of  it  all  was  that 
all  power  was  being  concentrated  in  one  man.  The  consti 
tutional  rights  of  the  Senate  had  been  outraged.  The  public 
domain  was  threatened  with  sacrifice.  The  Indian  tribes  had 
been  miserably  wronged.  Even  the  tariff  was  in  danger.  An 
"elective  monarchy  "  was  all  but  established.  On  every  hand 
was  depression,  suffering,  gloom.  The  power  over  the  purse 
had  been  lodged  with  that  over  the  sword — a  combination 
fatal  to  free  government.  The  President's  conduct  had  been 
lawless.  Such,  in  brief,  was  the  tone  and  temper  of  one  of  the 
greatest  philippics  that  ever  poured  from  the  lips  of  Clay.1 
As  he  sank  into  his  seat,  Benton  instantly  began  his  three- 
days  reply,  meeting  the  attack  with  a  counter-offen&ive. 
"Who  are  these  Goths?"  he  demanded  —  referring  to  Clay's 
call  upon  the  people  to  drive  the  Goths  from  the  Capitol. 
"They  are  President  Jackson  and  the  Democratic  Party 
—  he  just  elected  President  over  the  Senator  himself,  and 
the  party  just  been  made  a  majority  in  the  House  —  all  by 
the  votes  of  the  people.  It  is  their  act  which  has  placed  these 
Goths  in  possession  of  the  Capitol  to  the  discomfiture  of  the 
Senator  and  his  friends." 

Calhoun  followed  in  a  speech  of  an  hour  and  a  half  in  sup 
port  of  the  resolutions,  proclaiming  the  coalition.  "The 
Senator  from  Kentucky  anticipates  with  confidence,"  he 
said,  "that  the  small  party  who  were  denounced  at  the  last 
session  as  traitors  and  disunionists  will  be  found  on  this 
trying  occasion  in  the  front  rank,  and  manfully  resisting 
the  advance  of  despotic  power."  But  Calhoun's  intellectual 
self-respect  deterred  him  from  contending  that  the  removal 
of  Duane  was  an  act  of  Executive  usurpation. 

1  Clay's  Works,  vn,  575-620. 


332    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Then  followed  Rives  in  a  manly  defense  of  the  Administra 
tion  which  he  well  knew  would  force  his  retirement  from  the 
Senate  under  the  instructions  of  the  Virginia  Legislature. 
And  then  the  new  orator  of  the  Opposition,  William  Camp 
bell  Preston,  entered  the  lists,  attacking  Government  direct 
ors  for  furnishing  the  President  with  a  report  of  the  Bank's 
activities.  The  President  had  no  right  to  ask  information, 
and  the  directors  no  right  to  comply.  The  galleries  were 
moved  to  applause,  and  the  Carolinian  took  his  place  among 
the  popular  orators  of  the  day.1  Forsyth  followed  Preston, 
to  be  succeeded  by  Grundy,  who  was  trailed  by  Freling- 
huysen  for  the  resolutions. 

Meanwhile  Webster  was  impressively  silent.  Unwilling 
longer  to  make  the  Bank  the  football  of  party  politics,  he 
looked  disapprovingly  upon  the  war  of  personalities.  He 
knew  that  no  constructive  measure  had  been  proposed,  and 
that  Biddle's  frenzied  pressure  on  the  people  was  driving  sup 
porters  from  the  institution.  He  had  no  heart  at  this  time 
for  an  attack  on  Jackson  —  recalling  the  "reciprocal  kind 
nesses"  of  the  last  few  months.2  He  realized  that  a  senato 
rial  censure  and  exterior  pressure  would  never  drive  Jackson 
to  such  a  recharter  measure  as  had  been  proposed.  And  yet, 
in  January,  Calhoun  was  positive  that  the  Administration 
had  been  mortally  wounded.3  Preston  was  exuberantly 
proclaiming  that  the  removal  of  the  deposits  would  force  a 
recharter  on  the  Bank's  terms.4  In  February,  when  the  Bank 
was  losing  ground  with  the  people  and  making  no  congres 
sional  converts,  Clay  was  writing  to  Brooke  that  "we  are 
gaining,  both  in  public  opinion  and  in  number  in  the  House  of 
Representatives."  5  That  Clay  was  supremely  selfish  in  his 
relations  with  the  Bank  is  generally  conceded  by  historians 
now,6  and  was  keenly  felt  even  by  Biddle,  who  preferred  a 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Jan.  23,  1834;  Mrs.  Smith's  First  Forty  Years,  353. 

2  March's  Reminiscences  of  Congress. 

8  Catterall,  Second  Bank  of  tiie  United  States,  333.  4  Ibid. 

5  Clay's  Works,  v.  377.  •  Such  is  Catterall's  view. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      333 

joint  resolution  ordering  the  restoration  to  wasting  months  in 
wrangling  over  a  vote  of  censure.  This  plan  he  urged  upon 
Webster,  through  Horace  Binney  of  the  House.  But  Clay 
scoffed  at  the  idea.  He  was  more  interested  in  making  Jack 
son  obnoxious  for  party  reasons  than  in  serving  his  friends  in 
Philadelphia,  and  he  actually  felt  that  he  was  succeeding 
in  his  purpose. 
At  length  Webster  determined  to  strike  out  for  himself. 

IV 

EAELY  in  March  he  came  forward  with  his  compromise  re- 
charter  measure  providing  a  renewal  for  six  years  only;  for 
an  abandonment  of  the  monopoly  features  to  the  end  that 
Congress  might,  in  the  meantime,  if  it  saw  fit,  grant  a  charter 
to  another  company;  for  the  restoration  of  the  deposits  only 
after  July  1st;  and  for  the  issuance  of  no  note  under  the  $20 
denomination.  This  compromise  had  been  discussed  with 
friends  of  the  Administration,  who  were  ready  to  support  it 
provided  the  friends  of  the  Bank  would  unite  upon  it.  Three 
days  later  Webster  addressed  the  Senate  on  the  virtues  and 
purposes  of  the  measure,  carefully  refraining  from  personali 
ties  or  denunciation  of  the  President.  The  most  militant  of 
Jackson's  friends  could  have  found  no  fault  with  the  orator's 
treatment  of  their  idol.  Nor  did  he  imitate  his  party  col 
leagues  in  an  intemperate  discussion  of  the  removal.  He 
traced  the  origin  of  the  distress  to  Taney's  order;  showed  the 
relation  between  commerce  and  credit,  and  between  credit 
and  banking,  and  effectively  disposed  of  Jackson's  fallacy 
that  men  who  operate  on  credit  are  undeserving  of  considera 
tion.  It  was  only  in  his  affectation  of  indignation  over  the 
charge  that  the  Bank  was  deliberately  contributing  to  the 
distress  that  he  departed  from  the  high  ground^ of  statesman 
ship,  and  played  the  hypocritical  politician.  But  the  Senators 
listening  eagerly  to  his  words  did  not  know  of  the  letter  he 
had  written  to  Biddle  predicting  that  the  "disciplining"  of 


334    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  people  would  result  in  a  renewal  of  the  charter,  or  that 
he  had  urged  upon  Biddle,  through  Binney,  that  he  ought  to 
"occasionally  ease  off,  where  it  is  requisite  to  prevent  ex 
treme  distress."  No  one  knew  better  than  he  that  the  Bank 
not  only  possessed,  but  exerted,  the  power  charged  by  the 
Administration.  This  aside,  Webster's  was  the  most  digni 
fied,  impersonal,  and  statesmanlike  speech  of  the  session. 

But  the  moment  he  resumed  his  seat,  the  schism  among 
the  leaders  of  the  Opposition  was  emphasized  when  Leigh 
arose  to  announce  that  the  Virginia  view  of  the  unconstitu 
tionally  of  the  Bank  would  make  it  impossible  for  him  to 
support  the  bill.  Three  days  later  Calhoun  criticized  the 
measure  as  only  a  temporary  expedient,  and  proposed,  in 
stead,  a  bill  of  his  own  providing  a  recharter  for  twelve  years. 
The  only  extensive  attack  on  the  Webster  compromise,  how 
ever,  was  that  of  the  "Cato  of  the  Senate,"  Hugh  Lawson 
White,  who  had  not  up  to  that  time  wholly  broken  with  his 
old  friend  in  the  White  House.  Respected  as  a  financier,  he 
was  always  heard  with  profound  respect.  He  vigorously  de 
fended  the  removal  of  the  deposits  on  the  grounds  set  forth 
in  Jackson's  Message.  His  speech  was  all  the  more  impres 
sive  because  he  had  advised  against  the  removal  and  his  let 
ter  had  been  read  to  the  Cabinet.  The  day  before  taking  the 
floor,  he  wrote  of  his  embarrassment,  but  later  developments 
having  changed  his  opinion,  he  felt  it  would  be  censurable 
to  remain  silent.1 

But  in  the  end  it  was  not  the  opposition  of  Democratic 
Senators  that  suddenly  terminated  the  consideration  of  the 
Webster  compromise.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  friends  of 
the  Bank  were  hopelessly  divided  on  any  constructive  pro 
gramme.  Even  in  the  inner  Bank  circles  there  were  clashing 
views.  Biddle  favored  the  Webster  plan;  Sergeant,  the  chief 
counsel,  and  Binney,  leading  spokesman  in  the  House,  pre 
ferred  the  Calhoun  measure.  Even  these  differences  might 

1  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  143. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      335 

have  been  reconciled  but  for  the  selfishness  of  Clay,  who  per 
sisted  in  his  determination  to  use  the  Bank  for  party  pur 
poses.  "If  Mr.  C  [Clay]  and  Mr.  C  [Calhoun]  would  go  along 
with  us,"  Webster  wrote  Biddle,  "we  could  carry  the  com 
promise  bill  through  the  Senate  by  a  strong  two  thirds 
majority.  Can  you  write  through  anybody  to  talk  with 
Mr.  Calhoun?"  1  In  the  meanwhile  Calhoun  was  attempting 
the  conversion  of  such  Administration  Senators  as  Ben  ton 
and  Silas  Wright,  without  success. 

While  these  negotiations  were  in  progress,  the  fury  of  Clay 
over  the  independence  of  Webster  increased  in  intensity, 
culminating  in  the  threat  that,  if  the  New  Englander  failed 
to  move  to  lay  his  own  motion  on  the  table,  he  would  make 
the  motion  himself.  Thus,  one  week  after  the  delivery  of  his 
speech,  Webster  killed  his  own  measure.  When,  with  the 
explanation  that  he  had  been  disappointed  in  his  hopes,  he 
made  the  motion  to  table,  John  Forsyth  demanded  the  yeas 
and  nays  to  show  that  Webster's  bill  had  not  been  killed  by 
the  Administration  Senators,  but  by  his  own  party  friends. 
The  roll-call  showed  practically  all  the  Bank  Senators  voting 
to  table,  with  Benton,  Forsyth,  White,  Hill,  Wright,  and 
Grundy  voting  against  the  motion.  Thus  the  only  practical 
and  constructive  attempt  made  by  the  friends  of  the  Bank 
to  save  the  institution  was  slaughtered  in  the  house  of  its 
friends.2 

V 

WITH  the  accumulating  evidence  of  impatience  in  the  coun 
try,  Clay  at  length  determined  to  bring  to  a  vote  the  reso 
lutions,  submitted  merely  to  irritate  and  provoke  a  debate 
that  would  give  the  panic  time  to  act.  So  firmly  was  Clay 
convinced  that  the  "disciplining"  of  the  people  was  work 
ing  the  destruction  of  Jackson's  popularity,  that  he  sought 
to  transfer  a  portion  of  his  fancied  resentment  to  Van  Buren, 

1  Catterall,  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  336.  \*  Cong.  Globe,  I,  264. 


336    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

who  was  all  but  certain  to  be  the  Democratic  nominee  in 
1836. 1  There  has  probably  never  been  a  more  transparent 
bit  of  histrionics  perpetrated  upon  a  deliberative  body  than 
that  of  Clay  in  his  pathetic  appeal  to  Van  Buren,  seated  in 
the  chair,  and  with  a  padlock  on  his  lips,  to  hasten  to  Jackson 
with  a  plea  for  the  suffering  people. 

"To  you,  sir,  in  no  unfriendly  spirit,  but  with  feelings 
softened  and  subdued  by  the  deep  distress  which  pervades 
every  class  of  our  countrymen,  I  make  this  appeal,"  he 
exclaimed,  his  eyes  moist  with  tears.  "...  Depict  to  him,  if 
you  can  find  language  to  portray,  the  heartrending  wretched 
ness  of  thousands  of  the  working  classes  cast  out  of  employ 
ment.  Tell  him  of  the  tears  of  helpless  widows,  no  longer 
able  to  earn  their  bread,  and  of  unclad  and  unfed  orphans, 
who  have  been  driven  by  this  policy,  out  of  the  busy  pursuits, 
in  which,  but  yesterday,  they  were  gaining  an  honest  live 
lihood.  .  .  .  Tell  him  that  he  has  been  abused,  deceived, 
betrayed  by  the  wicked  counsels  of  unprincipled  men  around 
him.  Inform  him  that  all  efforts  in  Congress  to  alleviate  or 
terminate  the  public  distress  are  paralyzed  and  likely  to 
prove  totally  unavailing,  from  his  influence  upon  a  large 
portion  of  its  members  who  are  unwilling  to  withdraw  their 
support,  or  to  take  a  course  repugnant  to  his  wishes  and 
feelings.  Tell  him  that  in  his  bosom  alone,  under  actual  cir 
cumstances,  does  the  power  reside  to  relieve  the  country; 
and  that  unless  he  opens  it  to  conviction,  and  corrects  the 
errors  of  his  Administration,  no  human  imagination  can 
conceive,  and  no  human  tongue  can  express  the  awful  con 
sequences  which  may  follow." 

With  this  piece  of  play-acting,  Clay,  looking  as  much  dis 
tressed  as  one  of  his  petitioners,  sank  exhausted  in  his  seat. 
Throughout  the  ludicrous  scene,  Van  Buren  "maintained 
the  utmost  decorum  of  countenance,  looking  respectfully  and 

1 "  Our  city  is  full  of  distress  committees.  The  more  the  better."  (Clay  to  Brooke, 
Works,  v,  377.) 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      337 

even  innocently  at  the  speaker  all  the  while  as  if  treasuring 
up  every  word  he  said  to  be  repeated  to  the  President."  l 
But  all  the  while  the  more  astute  Red  Fox  was  thinking  that 
the  speech  "would  tend  to  strengthen  greatly  the  attachment 
of  his  friends;  would  warm  up  their  sympathies  in  his  be 
half  and  concentrate  their  regard."  2  With  the  eyes  of  all 
upon  him  —  and  the  Senate  had  been  really  affected  by  Clay's 
voice  and  manner  —  Van  Buren  called  a  Senator  to  the  chair, 
placidly  descended  to  the  floor  as  though  he  were  not  the 
object  of  interest,  deliberately  walked  to  Clay's  seat,  and, 
in  his  most  courtly  manner,  and  with  his  most  courtly  bow, 
asked  for  a  pinch  of  his  snuff.  The  startled  orator  gave  him 
his  snuffbox.  Van  Buren  took  a  pinch,  applied  it  to  his 
nostrils,  returned  the  box,  bowed  again,  and  resumed  the 
chair  as  though  nothing  had  happened.  And  the  Senate 
smiled.  Clay's  appeal  had  hovered  dangerously  near  the 
ridiculous,  and  Van  Buren  pushed  it  over.  No  single  incident 
so  well  illustrates  the  political  purpose  of  Clay's  activities 
on  the  removal  of  the  deposits. 

But  even  panics  and  politics  cannot  go  on  forever,  and 
the  discussion  on  the  Clay  resolutions  had  covered  "the 
longest  period  which  had  been  occupied  in  a  single  debate 
in  either  House  of  Congress  since  the  organization  of  the 
Government."  3  Thus,  on  March  27th  the  Senate,  by  a 
vote  of  26  to  20,  placed  the  stigma  of  a  censure  upon  the; 
action  of  the  President. 

Jackson  was  now  to  have  his  inning. 

VI 

WITH  mass  meetings  being  organized  against  him  in  all  sec 
tions,  with  the  capital  crowded  with  hostile  delegations,  and 
with  the  Senators  thundering  their  extravagant  philippics 

1  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  420. 

2  Van  Buren's  statement  to  Senator  Foote,  as  given  in  the  Casket  of  Reminiscences, 
.  8  Cky's  speech,  Cong.  Globe,  i,  269. 


338    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

at  the  tyrant  responsible  for  the  widows'  and  the  orphans' 
woes,  Jackson  remained  serene  and  unafraid.1  But  with  the 
adoption  of  the  resolutions  of  censure,  he  determined  to 
strike  back  in  such  a  way  as  effectively  to  reach  the  people. 
There  were  men  in  those  days  who  thought  that  a  senatorial 
censure  would  wreck  any  reputation.  They  had  not  yet 
sensed  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Three  weeks  after  the  Senate 
acted,  Major  Donelson  appeared  in  the  Chamber  with  the 
famous  Protest.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  merciless 
than  the  cold  logic  with  which  the  iron  man  pounded  the 
resolutions  of  condemnation;  nothing  more  biting  than  his 
reference  to  those  Senators  supporting  them,  who  had  thus 
"  deliberately  disregarded  the  recorded  opinion  of  their 
States."  He  solemnly  protested  "against  the  proceedings  .  . . 
as  unauthorized  by  the  Constitution,  contrary  to  the  spirit 
and  to  several  of  its  express  provisions,  subversive  of  that 
distribution  of  powers  of  government  which  it  has  ordained 
and  established,  destructive  of  the  checks  and  safeguards 
by  which  those  powers  were  intended  on  the  one  hand  to  be 
controlled  and  on  the  other  to  be  protected,  and  calculated, 
by  their  immediate  and  collateral  effects,  by  their  character 
and  tendency,  to  concentrate  in  the  hands  of  a  body,  not 
directly  amenable  to  the  people,  a  degree  of  influence  and 
power  dangerous  to  their  liberties  and  fatal  to  the  Constitu 
tion  of  their  choice." 

Not  only  had  his  public  character  been  assailed,  but  im 
putations  had  been  cast  upon  his  private  character.  "In 
vain  do  I  bear  upon  my  person,"  he  continued  in  a  passage 
of  no  little  eloquence,  "enduring  memorials  of  that  contest  in 
which  American  liberty  was  purchased;  in  vain  have  I  since 
periled  property,  fame,  and  life  in  defense  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  so  dearly  bought;  in  vain  am  I  now,  without  a 
personal  aspiration  or  the  hope  of  individual  advantage, 
encountering  responsibilities  and  dangers  from  which  by  mere 

1  Bentou's  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  424. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      339 

inactivity  in  relation  to  a  single  point  I  might  have  been 
exempt,  if  any  serious  doubts  can  be  entertained  as  to  the 
purity  of  my  purpose  and  motives.  If  I  had  been  ambitious, 
I  should  have  sought  an  alliance  with  that  powerful  institu 
tion  which  even  now  aspires  to  no  divided  empire.  If  I  had 
been  venal,  I  should  have  sold  myself  to  its  designs.  Had  I 
preferred  personal  comfort  and  official  ease  to  the  perform 
ance  of  my  arduous  duty,  I  should  have  ceased  to  molest  it. 
In  the  history  of  conquerors  and  usurpers,  never  in  the  fire  of 
youth  nor  in  the  vigor  of  manhood  could  I  find  an  attraction 
to  lure  me  from  the  path  of  duty,  and  now  I  shall  scarcely 
find  an  inducement  to  commence  the  career  of  ambition 
when  gray  hairs  and  a  decaying  frame,  instead  of  inviting  to 
toil  and  battle,  call  me  to  the  contemplation  of  other  worlds 
where  conquerors  cease  to  be  honored  and  usurpers  expiate 
their  crimes."  And  he  closed  with  the  request  that  the  Pro 
test  be  entered  upon  the  journals  of  the  Senate.1 

Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  this  remarkable  document, 
its  effect  upon  the  masses  of  the  people,  idolizing  Jackson  as 
they  never  had  another  American,  was  certain  to  be  tre 
mendous.  The  ideas  were  largely  Jackson's.  Attorney- 
General  Butler,  a  brilliant  lawyer,  worked  out  the  legal  end, 
while  Amos  Kendall  devoted  his  genius  to  those  portions  in 
tended  for  political  effect.  The  Protest  appeared  immediately 
in  Blair's  "Globe,"  and  was  soon  published  in  all  the  Ad-  . 
ministration  papers  of  the  country. 

vn 

THE  effect  on  the  Senate  may  be  better  imagined  than  de 
scribed.  Poindexter,  whose  private  grudge  was  the  inspiration 
of  his  renegadism,  could  not  "express  the  feeling  of  indig 
nation"  the  paper  had  excited  in  his  bosom,  and  he  would 
"spurn  it  from  the  Senate"  —  "that  body  which  stands  as  a 
barrier  between  the  people  and  the  encroachments  of  execu- 

1  See  Richardson's  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents. 


340    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

live  power."  It  was  not  a  Message  —  merely  "a  paper, 
signed  *  Andrew  Jackson/"  and  "nothing  else."1  Sprague 
of  Maine,  who  had  been  pilloried,  spoke  "more  in  grief  than 
in  anger,"  and  while  the  President  had  referred  to  "his 
Secretary"  and  felt  that  this  was  "his  Government,"  he,  the 
Senator,  "never  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal."  And  while  the 
tyrant  was  appealing  to  the  people,  look  about.  "Behold 
your  green  fields  withered;  listen  to  the  cries  of  distress  of 
the  widows  and  orphans,  rising  almost  in  execration  of  the 
exercise  of  that  power  which  has  blasted  their  hopes  and 
reduced  them  to  despair."  2  Frelinghuysen  of  New  Jersey, 
another  pilloried  statesman,  next  arose  to  discuss  "this  most 
extraordinary  proceeding  —  one  which  would  form  an  era  in 
American  history."  What  a  spectacle !  "  When  the  busy  hum 
of  industry  was  silenced,  when  the  laborer  was  in  want  of 
employment,  when  banks  were  breaking  in  every  direction, 
and  the  cries  for  relief  from  the  unrelenting  hand  of  power 
were  heard  everywhere  around  us,"  the  Senate  had  listened 
to  a  lecture  of  an  hour  and  a  half.  And  why  refer  to  the 
New  Jersey  Legislature?  He  had  "dared  to  meet  the  frowns 
of  his  constituents"  because  of  his  zeal  for  his  country.3 
Southard  of  New  Jersey,  also  pilloried  by  Jackson,  hoped 
that  he  might  "  school  himself  into  that  degree  of  moderation 
necessary  for  the  occasion."  He  could  find  no  excuse  for 
Jackson's  indignation.  And  yet  "we  have  received,  not  from 
Charles  I,  Cromwell,  or  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  but  from  a 
man  combining  the  characters  of  the  whole  of  them,  a  warn 
ing  to  cease  our  further  proceedings."  4  And  Leigh  closed  the 
day's  events  by  declaring  "before  God  that  upon  the  fate  of 
these  resolutions,  and  the  disposition  of  this  question,  depends 
the  permanency  of  the  Constitution,  handed  down  to  us  by 
our  fathers."  5 

To  get  the  right  perspective  upon  these  speeches,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  at  the  time  of  their  delivery  the  busi- 

1  Cong.  Globe,  i,  317.         2  Ibid.,  318.         8  Ibid.         *  Ibid.,  321.         6  Ibid.,  323. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      341 

ness  men  were  openly  charging  Biddle  with  responsibility  for 
the  panic.  Niles's  "Register"  had  admitted  that  the  Bank's 
power  was  too  great,  and  the  "St.  Louis  Republican,"  a 
stanch  supporter  of  the  Bank,  had  turned  upon  it  with  a 
bitter  denunciation  of  its  course.1  Thus,  however,  the  debate 
began,  and  in  this  spirit  was  it  continued  for  a  month  —  a 
month  of  fierce  invective.  On  the  second  day,  following  the 
philippic  of  Leigh,  the  crowds  in  the  packed  galleries  clashed 
with  cheers  and  hisses.  Especially  pleased  were  the  galleries 
when,  apropos  of  Jackson's  reference  to  his  gray  hairs,  the 
fiery  cripple  compared  him  to  Mount  ^Etna,  "whose  sum 
mit  was  capped  with  eternal  snow,  but  which  was  always 
vomiting  forth  its  liquid  fire."  2  The  discussion  finally  re 
volved  around  the  Poindexter  resolutions  not  to  receive.  A 
few  days  later  Calhoun  attacked  the  Protest  with  great  bit 
terness,  and  amendments  were  offered  by  both  Calhoun  and 
Forsyth.  That  of  the  Carolinian  declared  the  President  had 
no  right  to  send,  and  the  Senate  no  right  to  receive,  such  a 
document.  Then  the  Administration  disclosed  its  hand  in 
the  Forsyth  resolution  providing  that  "an  authenticated 
copy  of  the  original  resolution  [Clay's]  with  a  list  of  the  ayes 
and  nays,  of  the  President's  Message  and  the  pending  resolu 
tion  be  prepared  .  .  .  and  transmitted  to  the  Governor  of  each 
State  of  the  Union  to  be  laid  before  their  legislature  at  the 
next  session,  as  the  only  authority  authorized  to  decide  upon 
the  opinions  and  conduct  of  the  Senators."  8  Here  was  a 
declaration,  by  indirection,  from  the  leader  of  the  Adminis 
tration  that  the  President  was  not  authorized  to  pass  upon 
the  opinions  and  conduct  of  Senators.  Had  the  resolution 
stopped  there,  it  would  not  have  differed  materially  from 
those  of  Poindexter  or  the  resolution  of  Calhoun.  But  it  de 
clared  that  there  was  an  authority  to  pass  upon  the  conduct 
of  Senators  —  the  people  who  elected  them  to  the  Senate; 
and  that,  with  the  facts  before  them,  they  should  pass  upon 
1  Feb.  10, 1834.  *  Cong.  Globe,  I,  328.  \  »  Ibid.,  368. 


342    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  conduct  of  the  public  servants.  This  was  an  impressive 
proclamation  that  the  Jacksonian  Senators  were  convinced 
that  the  people  sustained  them;  and  the  fact  that  the  Forsyth 
resolution  was  defeated  by  a  party  vote  was  an  admission 
from  the  Opposition  that  it  lacked  such  faith. 

When  in  early  May  the  Poindexter  resolutions  were  called 
up  for  final  consideration,  the  debate  was  closed  by  Webster 
in  a  constitutional  argument  pitched  upon  a  higher  plane 
than  that  of  personalities,  and  interspersed  with  passages  of 
eloquence  seldom  equaled  even  by  him.1  Nothing  reveals 
the  inability  of  the  senatorial  oligarchy  to  understand  the 
altered  spirit  of  the  people  so  well  as  his  contention  that 
the  Senate  was  expected  to  stand  between  the  people  and  the 
tyranny  of  Executive  power.  The  fact  that  the  peaceful 
revolution  of  1828  was  a  rising  of  the  people  against  the 
aristocracy  of  the  old  congressional  clique  does  not  appear 
to  have  occurred  to  Webster  or  his  party  friends  at  any 
time  during  the  Jacksonian  period. 

When  Webster  concluded,  the  last  word  for  the  Adminis 
tration  was  spoken  by  its  most  eloquent  spokesman,  who, 
better  than  any  other,  was  temperamentally  fitted  to  meet 
the  New  England  orator  upon  the  high  plane  he  had  chosen, 
John  Forsyth.  Webster  rejoined,  briefly,  the  vote  was  taken, 
and  the  resolutions  passed  with  a  margin  of  eleven  votes. 

VIII 

MEANWHILE  the  battle  over  the  deposits  was  being  fought 
in  the  House,  albeit  with  less  vituperation  and  abuse.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  one  of  the  Bank's  leaders,  looked  upon  the 
proceedings  in  both  Houses  with  cynical  amusement  as 
being  the  mere  ebullitions  of  party  politics  with  no  terminal 
facilities.  Though  a  talkative  member,  his  name  appearing 
ninety-three  times  during  the  session,  he  made  none  of  the 

1  Especially  the  famous  passage  inspired  by  memories  of  his  emotions  on  the 
ramparts  of  Quebec. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      343 

principal  speeches  on  the  leading  questions;  but  whenever  his 
vote  was  required,  it  was  cast  for  the  Bank,  and  whenever 
his  advice  was  solicited,  it  was  given.  The  more  active 
leadership  of  the  tempestuous  McDuffie,  whose  partiality  for 
the  Bank  had  displaced  him  in  the  chairmanship  of  the 
Ways  and  Means  Committee,  was  more  in  evidence.  But 
more  impressive  than  either  in  the  front  rank  of  the  Bank 
champions  was  a  new  member  whose  extraordinary  ability 
placed  him  immediately  with  the  foremost  of  congressional 
orators.  When  Horace  Binney  entered  the  House,  he  was  in 
his  fifty -third  year,  at  the  height  of  his  forensic  fame,  and  at 
the  head  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  sole 
figure  among  the  Bank  leaders  in  House  or  Senate  who  was 
not  moved  in  the  slightest  degree  by  political  considerations. 
He  had  overcome  his  distaste  for  political  controversy  and 
entered  the  House  with  the  sole  purpose  of  protecting,  as 
best  he  could,  the  interest  of  the  institution  of  which  he  had, 
but  the  year  before,  become  a  director.  He  was  as  much  the 
attorney  and  special  pleader  of  the  Bank  in  the  House  as  he 
could  have  been  in  the  courts.  His  physical  appearance 
alone  would  have  distinguished  him  in  any  assembly.  Tall, 
large,  and  perfectly  proportioned,  he  has  been  described  by 
one  who  observed  him  during  the  Bank  fight  as  "an  Apollo 
in  manly  beauty."  l  As  an  orator  he  was  of  the  Websterian 
mould.  He  spoke  with  great  deliberation,  and  with  perfect 
enunciation  and  modulation  with  a  voice  that  was  full  and 
musical.  Unlike  McDuffie,  he  was  incapable  of  tearing  a 
passion  to  tatters.  Never  noisy,  even  in  moments  of  great 
excitement,  he  was  always  graceful  and  easy  in  his  manner. 
He  spoke  the  language  that  Addison  and  Swift  wrote.  He 
addressed  the  House  with  the  same  scrupulous  care  and  the 
same  lofty  dignity  with  which  he  would  have  addressed  John 
Marshall  on  the  Supreme  Bench,  or  conversed  with  Mrs. 
Livingston  in  her  drawing-room.  In  social  relationships,  his 
1  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  n,  213. 


344     PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

innate  refinement  could  not  be  marred  by  the  free-and-easy 
manners  of  the  cloak-room;  his  suavity  could  not  be  dis 
turbed  by  the  ferocity  of  attack;  his  dignity  could  withstand 
any  circumstance.  Such  was  the  Bank's  most  perfect  cham 
pion  in  its  greatest  crisis.  He  left  his  profession  to  serve  its 
cause,  and  that  cause  defeated,  he  gladly  bade  farewell  to 
public  life  and  returned  to  his  profession  and  his  habitual 
peace  of  mind. 

As  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  the 
burden  of  the  battle  for  the  Administration  fell  on  James 
K.  Polk.  History  has  settled  on  the  verdict  that  he  was  a 
man  of  mediocre  ability,  with  nothing  to  commend  him  to 
the  admiration,  and  little  to  the  respect,  of  posterity.  But 
he  managed  the  fight  for  the  Administration  with  consum 
mate  parliamentary  skill.  Beset  on  all  sides  by  tremendous 
onslaughts,  he  remained  cool,  courteous,  and  fair  throughout, 
and  won  the  open  commendation  of  McDuffie  for  the  man 
liness  of  his  methods.  It  is  impossible  to  turn  the  yellowing 
pages  of  the  "Congressional  Globe,"  recording  the  day-by- 
day  story  of  the  fight,  without  a  growing  feeling  of  admira 
tion  for  Polk.  He  was  never  diverted  from  the  question, 
never  excited  by  attacks,  patient,  and  yet  always  pressing 
courteously  for  action.  In  the  midst  of  the  frenzied  partisans, 
he  looms  large. 

The  fight  began  over  the  reference  of  the  Taney  report  and 
Polk's  motion  that  it  be  referred  to  his  committee.  In  ex 
plaining  his  reasons  the  latter  avowed  a  purpose  to  investi 
gate  the  Bank,  and  the  forces  rushed  into  action.  "Why 
investigate,"  cried  McDuffie,  "when  admissions  would  be 
made  without  an  investigation?"  Had  Bank  money  been 
used  in  the  campaign?  Admitted!  "State  your  sum,"  he 
shouted,  "fifty,  sixty,  or  a  hundred  thousand."  The  Con 
gress  had  named  a  depository  for  the  public  money;  it  had 
been  removed;  it  must  be  restored  —  that  was  the  subject  for 
debate.1  Binney  immediately  arose  to  supplement  McDuffie 's 

1  Cong.  Globe,  i,  24. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      345 

suggestion.  "What  is  the  object  of  the  inquiry  asked  for?" 
he  demanded.  "Is  it  to  suggest  reasons  for  the  Secretary's 
act  .  .  .  ?  If  you  bring  in  other  facts,  other  judgments,  other 
reasons,  you  annul  the  judgment  of  the  Secretary,  agree  that 
it  was  wrong,  and  assume  to  exercise  an  original  instead 
of  a  derivative  power."  If  Taney  had  acted  on  sufficient 
reasons,  "it  was  for  the  House,  on  behalf  of  the  people,  to 
pronounce  their  judgment;  and  if  they  were  sufficient,  then 
there  was  an  end  to  the  question."  More:  "What  knowledge 
have  we  of  the  condition  of  the  banks  selected  by  the  Govern 
ment?" 

The  State  banks  not  safe?  Polk  retorted.  Very  well,  "this 
constitutes  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  investigation  pro 
posed."  A  " question  of  public  faith?  "  as  Binney  had  hinted. 
"Is  it  not  proper,  then,"  asked  Polk,  "for  a  committee  .  .  . 
to  inquire  by  which  party  the  contract  was  violated?"  And 
only  to  inquire  into  the  sufficiency  of  Taney 's  reasons?  Why, 
"some  of  the  reasons  given  may  involve  the  charter  of  the 
Bank."  * 

After  a  week  of  wrangling,  the  Administration  won  on 
the  reference,  but  the  moment  the  vote  was  announced, 
McDuffie  moved  instructions  to  the  committee  to  report  a 
joint  resolution  providing  for  the  depositing  of  all  revenues 
thereafter  collected  in  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  —  and 
this  was  the  peg  on  which  the  main  discussion  hung. 

The  impetuous  McDuffie  was  the  first  to  rush  into  the 
arena.  His  was  a  bitter,  brilliant  excoriation  of  Jackson,  a 
fulsome  glorification  of  the  Bank,  and  he  thundered  on  for 
two  days,2  impassioned,  in  a  state  of  constant  volcanic  erup 
tion,  but  little  more  than  "a  fierce  attack  upon  the  Presi 
dent."  3  One  week  later  Polk  consumed  two  days  in  a  reply 
which,  in  its  moderation  of  tone  and  language  and  its  argu 
mentative  character,  was  in  striking  contrast  to  that  of  the 
vituperative  Carolinian.  Defending  in  detail  the  position 

1  Cong.  Globe,  25.  2  Ibid..  43.  •  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  23,  1833. 


346    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

of  Jackson,  discussing  the  legal  and  constitutional  phases, 
citing  precedents  and  authorities,  he  built  up  a  case  for  the 
Administration  which  could  not  have  been  other  than  im 
pressive  in  view  of  the  attempt  of  most  of  the  Bank's  cham 
pions  to  answer  him.1  Another  week  elapsed  before  Horace 
Binney  rose  to  reply,  in  a  masterpiece  of  parliamentary 
oratory.  In  musically  flowing  sentences  he  described  the 
prosperity  preceding  the  attack  upon  the  Bank,  the  nature 
of  the  currency  and  credit,  the  effect  of  the  shaking  of  confi 
dence,  the  necessity  for  the  Bank's  curtailments,  and  argued 
that  "the  control  of  the  public  deposits  is  inherent  in  the 
Congress."  But  had  the  Bank  been  charged  with  exercising 
political  power?  "Granted  —  granted  —  the  charge  is 
granted,  but  the  Bank  has  not  succeeded  in  this  exercise  of 
political  power.  .  .  .  The  late  election  proves  that  it  did  not 
succeed.  The  force  of  array,  legislative  and  executive,  is 
against  the  Bank;  and  it  did  not  succeed.  The  act  of  re 
moval  was  not,  therefore,  an  imperative  and  retributive  act; 
but  an  act  of  malignant  dye  —  an  act  vindictive."  In  all  his 
historical  researches  he  knew  of  only  one  instance  where  a 
charter  had  been  destroyed  "on  the  alleged  ground  of  the 
assumption  of  political  power."  That  was  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II,  when,  on  that  ground,  he  obtained  possession  of 
the  charter  of  London.  "But  it  was  restored  when  constitu 
tional  liberty  dawned."  Thus  he  approached  his  conclusion 
—  a  demand  for  the  immediate  restoration  of  the  deposits, 
and,  speaking  with  a  rapidity  that  the  reporter  could  not 
follow,  launched  upon  his  peroration,  with  the  plea  that  the 
question  be  not  considered  in  the  spirit  of  party,  but  "rather 
as  one  affecting  the  general  interest  of  the  community;  as  one 
involving  the  integrity  of  the  Constitution,  the  stability  of 
contracts,  and  the  permanence  of  free  government;  as  a 
question  involving  public  faith,  national  existence,  and  the 
honor  and  integrity  of  the  country,  at  home  and  abroad."  2 

1  Cong.  Globe,  I,  68.  *  Ibid.,  84-94. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      347 

Thus,  refraining  from  personalities,  and  frowning  upon  the 
party  aspect  of  the  controversy,  the  most  clever  of  the  Bank's 
champions,  speaking  with  the  cunning  of  the  proverbial 
"Philadelphia  lawyer,"  attempted,  too  late,  to  undo  the 
work  Clay  had  done  to  serve  a  selfish  end.  The  night  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  speech  found  him  at  the  White  House, 
one  of  numerous  guests,  and  Jackson  sought  him,  devoted 
himself  to  him  with  an  embarrassing  assiduity,  and  thanked 
him  for  advocating  his  cause  without  indulgence  in  personal 
abuse. 

But  it  was  not  every  Philadelphia  lawyer  that  was  to  be 
looked  upon  so  kindly  in  Jacksonian  circles.  In  the  midst  of 
the  struggle  in  the  House  a  series  of  Bank  articles  began 
to  appear  in  the  "National  Gazette"  over  the  signature  of 
"Vindex."  It  was  just  at  the  time  Joseph  Hopkinson,  the 
Federal  Judge  for  eastern  Pennsylvania,  began  to  haunt  the 
floor  and  lobby  of  the  House  —  a  privilege  he  enjoyed  by 
virtue  of  previous  membership  in  that  body.  His  activity 
among  the  members  became  so  open  as  to  create  comment, 
and  the  "National  Gazette"  made  a  laborious  attempt  to 
explain  his  presence.  It  was  a  purely  social  visit.  He  had 
come  on  the  invitation  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
It  was  natural  that  he  should  delight  in  renewing  old  friend 
ships.  This  explanation  gave  Blair  his  opportunity,  in  a 
column  editorial,  to  assail  the  Philadelphia  jurist  as  a  lobby 
ist,  to  insist  that  he  had  disqualified  himself  to  sit  on  any 
Bank  case,  and  to  challenge  the  "National  Gazette"  to  deny 
that  he  was  the  author  of  the  "Vindex"  articles. 

"But  further  we  would  inquire,"  wrote  Blair,  "whether 
the  judge  is  not  a  debtor  of  the  Bank  as  well  as  its  anonymous 
vindicator?  We  believe  he  is  —  and  it  is  difficult  to  say 
whether  the  judge's  extreme  solicitude  and  activity  in  behalf 
of  the  Bank  arises  from  its  pecuniary  favors,  the  bonds  of 
family  affection  which  bind  him  to  Mr.  Biddle,  his  son  hav 
ing  married  Mr.  Biddle's  sister,  or  the  old  Federal  feeling 


348    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

which  always  distinguished  him,  and  which  inclined  him 
against  his  country  during  the  last  war,  and  prompted  his 
speech  after  its  close,  declaring  the  Nation  was  disgraced  by 
the  peace."  l  Such  was  the  bitterness  and  such  were  the 
blunt  weapons  in  evidence  in  the  contest  even  in  the  House. 
Early  in  March,  Polk  submitted  his  report  justifying  every 
step  of  the  Administration,  and  including  the  sensational 
resolution  providing  for  an  investigation  of  the  Bank  at 
Philadelphia.  Binney  submitted  a  minority  report  favoring 
the  restoration  of  the  deposits,  and  the  debate  took  a  fresh 
start.  The  outstanding  speech  of  this  phase  of  the  debate 
was  that  of  Rufus  Choate,  described  by  Adams,  on  the  eve 
ning  of  its  delivery,  as  "the  most  eloquent  speech  of  the  ses 
sion,  and,  in  a  course  of  reasoning,  altogether  impressive  arid 
original."  2  Still  young,  and  his  public  career  but  brief,  his 
great  intellectual  labors  had  already  undermined  his  health, 
and  even  thus  early  in  life  he  presented  to  the  House  when  he 
arose  the  "cadaverous  look"  which  confronts  us  to-day  in 
the  portraits  of  his  later  life.3  With  all  the  consummate 
skill  which  so  distinguished  his  advocacy  in  the  courts,  he 
sought  to  divert  the  discussion  from  the  channels  it  had  fol 
lowed.  "As  to  the  Bank  itself,"  he  said,  "I  shall  go  through 
out  on  the  supposition  that  it  will  not  be  rechartered.  I  call 
on  gentlemen  to  look  upon  the  proposition  to  restore  the 
deposits  merely  as  a  temporary  measure  of  relief."  The  cry 
ing  need  of  the  immediate  hour  was  the  use  of  the  public 
money,  and  this  could  be  had  in  a  beneficial  way  at  the  time 
only  through  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Like  Binney, 
he  won  the  respect  of  Administration  forces,  and  the  suc 
ceeding  speaker,  hostile  to  the  restoration,  found  the  views 
expressed  "new  and  interesting,  and  delivered  in  a  tone  and 
spirit  becoming  the  representatives  of  a  free  people."  4  But 
the  debate  dragged  on  without  any  high  lights  until  in  early 

1  Washington  Globe,  June  3,  1834.  2  Adams's  Memoirs,  March  28,  1834. 

*  Adams  refers  to  his  "cadaverous  look."      *  Cong.  Globe,  i,  272. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      349 

April,  when  McDuffie  returned  to  the  attack,  still  in  a  super 
heated  condition,  and  seeing  swords  and  daggers  gleaming  in 
the  air.  Never  in  all  history,  he  thought,  had  "the  progress 
of  the  usurpation  of  the  Executive  been  more  rapid,  more 
bold,  or  more  successful  than  in  the  United  States  in  the  last 
fifteen  months."  As  he  sat  down,  the  previous  question  was 
moved,  and  with  the  appointment  of  tellers  there  fell  a  deep 
silence  with  the  contending  forces  "glowering  upon  each 
other."  l  The  roll  was  called  —  and  victory  fell  to  the  Jack- 
sonians  with  an  overwhelming  majority. 

In  pursuance  of  the  resolutions  providing  for  an  investiga 
tion,  a  committee  was  appointed,  and  with  no  thought  of 
meeting  opposition,  it  repaired  to  Philadelphia,  sent  Biddle 
a  copy  of  the  resolutions,  informed  him  of  the  committee's 
presence  and  its  readiness  to  visit  the  Bank  on  the  following 
day  at  any  hour  that  he  would  indicate.  Then  followed  days 
of  struggle,  with  the  committee  obstructed  at  every  turn  by 
the  technical  barricades  thrown  up  by  John  Sergeant.  It  was 
not  for  nothing,  in  the  old  days,  that  men  characterized 
the  cunning  as  "smart  as  a  Philadelphia  lawyer."  Having 
exhausted  their  resources,  the  committeemen  returned  to 
Washington  and  prepared  reports  to  the  House.  The  minor 
ity  report,  submitted  by  Edward  Everett,  excused  the  Bank. 
The  majority  charged  contempt  of  the  House,  and  asked  that 
warrants  be  issued  for  the  arrest  of  Biddle  and  the  directors. 
A  few  days  later  Adams  offered  his  resolution  to  discharge 
the  committee  from  further  duty,  setting  forth  that  there 
had  been  no  contempt,  and  characterizing  the  proposed 
arrest  of  Biddle  and  his  directors  as  "unconstitutional, 
arbitrary,  and  an  oppressive  abuse  of  power."  If  this  resolu 
tion  was  novel,  under  the  circumstances,  the  speech  in 
which  it  was  supported  was  even  more  remarkable.  "The 
House  has  sent  a  committee  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the 
Bank,"  Adams  said.  "Have  they  not  done  it?  Not  one 

1  Jenkins,  Life  of  Polk. 


350    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

word  on  that  subject  is  to  be  found  in  the  report.  It  contains 
no  information  on  the  affairs  of  the  Bank."  1  And  how  could 
the  House  enforce  its  decrees?  he  asked.  "We  have  not  a 
soldier  to  enforce  our  orders."  And  Adams  was  more  lauda 
tory  in  his  references  to  the  bankers,  "distinguished  for  their 
talents,"  than  he  ever  was  to  political  friend  or  foe. 

Thus  nothing  came  of  the  resolutions.  Perhaps  nothing 
was  expected.  If  the  Bank's  curt  treatment  of  the  committee 
amused  the  business  element  and  the  Whig  politicians,  it 
delighted  Kendall  and  Blair,  for  they  knew  how  effectively 
the  incident  could  be  used  with  the  masses. 

IX 

AFTER  the  adoption  of  the  Poindexter  resolutions  no  further 
steps  were  taken  in  the  Senate  until  Clay,  three  weeks  later, 
presented  his  resolution  ordering  the  restoration  of  the 
deposits.  This  was  in  the  midst  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
House  committee  with  the  Bank.  Why,  demanded  Benton, 
had  it  not  been  presented  in  the  early  part  of  the  session? 
Why  now  with  no  possibility  of  concurrence  in  the  House? 
And  why  now  in  the  midst  of  a  controversy  between  the 
House  and  the  Bank,  with  contempt  proceedings  pending 
against  the  Bank,  and  the  House  awaiting  the  report  of  its 
investigation?  What  right  had  the  Senate  to  interfere  in 
behalf  of  the  Bank?  He  hoped  the  Senate  would  postpone 
the  consideration  of  the  resolution  for  a  week  to  permit  the 
House  to  decide  the  question  of  contempt.2  Nevertheless, 
the  Senate,  by  a  party  vote,  passed  the  futile  resolution. 

But  the  senatorial  champions  of  the  Bank  were  to  encoun 
ter  embarrassments  other  than  those  growing  out  of  the 
action  of  the  House.  In  May,  Mr.  Clay  had  called  upon 
Taney  for  a  report  upon  the  finances.  At  the  time  this  was 
done,  the  Senate  was  being  deluged  with  distress  petitions, 

1  The  report  very  clearly  explained  the  reasons.   (Cong.  Globe,  i,  446-48.) 
a  Cong.  Globe.  I,  409. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      351 

mass  meetings  were  being  held,  and  the  doleful  senatorial 
descriptions  of  wreck  and  ruin  were  falling  mournfully  upon 
the  Senate  Chamber,  day  by  day.  It  was  the  middle  of  June 
when  Taney 's  report  reached  the  Senate.  The  facts  as  set 
forth  were  in  such  startling  contrast  with  conditions  as  they 
had  been  depicted  by  Clay  and  his  followers  that  the  Admin 
istration  leaders,  always  clever,  and  always  thinking  more 
of  the  voters  in  the  country  than  of  the  politicians  in  the 
Senate  house,  determined  that  it  should  have  the  greatest 
possible  publicity.  The  day  before,  Taney  had  summoned 
Benton  to  the  Treasury,  and  had  gone  over  the  report  with 
him,  furnishing  him  with  all  the  data,  and  preparing  him  for 
a  speech  that  could  be  sent  to  the  country.  As  anticipated, 
the  reading  in  the  Senate  had  not  proceeded  far  when  Web 
ster  arose  to  move  that  further  reading  be  dispensed  with, 
and  the  report  sent  to  the  Finance  Committee.  Benton 
objected.  The  report  was  read.  Then  Benton,  in  his  most 
flamboyant  mood,  arose  to  comment  upon  it. 

"Well,  the  answer  comes,"  he  exclaimed  with  the  Benton- 
ian  flourish.  "It  is  a  report  to  make  the  patriot  heart  re 
joice,  replete  with  rich  information,  pregnant  with  evidences 
of  national  prosperity.  How  is  it  received  —  how  received  by 
those  who  called  for  it?  With  downcast  looks  and  wordless 
tongues.  A  motion  is  made  to  stop  the  reading."  But  he  did 
not  propose  that  such  a  report  should  be  disposed  of  "in  this 
unceremonious  and  compendious  style."  No,  "a  pit  was  dug 
for  Mr.  Taney;  the  diggers  of  the  pit  have  fallen  into  it:  the 
fault  is  not  his;  and  the  sooner  they  clamber  out,  the  better 
for  themselves."  And,  regardless  of  the  embarrassment  of 
the  conspirators,  he  proposed  that  the  country  should  know 
that  "never  since  America  had  a  place  among  nations  was 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  equal  to  what  it  is  this  day."  1 

In  this  exordium  he  did  not  exaggerate  the  story  of  the 
figures  of  the  report;  and  the  report  did  not  misrepresent 

1  Cong.  Globe,  i,  454. 


352    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  condition  of  the  country.  The  Bank  panic  had  run  out. 
Only  its  friends  were  now  suffering,  and  even  Philip  Hone  in 
New  York  was  secretly  cursing  the  name  of  Biddle. 

But  the  enemies  of  the  Administration  in  the  Senate  were 
to  have  their  revenge.  Andrew  Stevenson,  for  almost  seven 
years  Speaker  of  the  House,  one  of  the  most  courtly  and 
talented  men  in  public  life,  had  been  nominated  for  the 
English  Mission.  He  resigned  from  the  Speakership  and 
from  Congress,  and  his  name  was  sent  to  the  Senate  for  con 
firmation.  And  the  political  combination  that,  in  a  spirit  of 
proscription,  had  refused  to  confirm  Van  Buren,  declined  to 
confirm  the  man  selected  as  his  successor.  This  act  was  too 
flagrant  even  for  John  Tyler,  who  voted  to  confirm.1  As  a 
result  of  this  petty  policy,  America  was  unrepresented  in 
England  from  1832,  when  Van  Buren  was  humiliated,  until 
1836,  when  a  Democratic  Senate  confirmed  Stevenson. 

As  the  end  of  the  session  approached,  Jackson  sent  to  the 
Senate  the  nominations  of  Taney  and  Butler,  as  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  and  Attorney-General.  The  latter  was  con 
firmed;  the  former  rejected.  But  the  rejection  of  Taney  had 
been  considered  more  than  probable  by  Jackson,  who  had 
refrained  from  sending  the  nomination  to  the  Senate  until  the 
last  minute.  This  was  the  first  time,  however,  in  the  history 
of  the  Government  that  a  Cabinet  officer  had  failed  of  con 
firmation.  It  was  in  no  sense,  however,  a  reflection  upon  the 
man;  it  merely  reflected  the  insane  bitterness  of  the  time. 
On  his  return  to  Maryland,  Taney  was  greeted  with  a  series 
of  ovations.  At  Baltimore  he  was  met  by  a  multitude  and 
conveyed  in  a  barouche  drawn  by  four  white  horses,  es 
corted  by  a  cavalcade  of  several  hundred  horsemen,  and 
given  a  dinner.  Another  dinner  awaited  him  at  Frederick, 
and  another  at  Elkton,  and  each  was  made  the  occasion  for  a 
powerful  speech  which  made  an  impression  on  the  country. 

Thus  the  prolonged  session  of  Congress,  lasting  almost 
1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  GODS      353 

seven  months,  had  accomplished  nothing  for  the  Bank.  The 
anti-Jackson  Senate  had  censured  the  President  and  ordered 
the  restoration  of  the  deposits.  The  Jacksonian  House  had 
declared  against  the  restoration  of  the  deposits,  against  the 
renewal  of  the  charter,  and  had  summoned  Nicholas  Biddle 
to  its  bar  for  contempt.  The  politicians  had  fought  the 
battle  in  Congress  to  a  deadlock,  and  the  next  and  final  fight 
was  to  be  waged  at  the  polls. 

We  shall  now  note  the  effect  of  the  sham  battles  of  the 
Congress  on  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA 
I 

PHILIP  HONE,  seated  in  the  little  Senate  Chamber,  and  still 
entranced  with  Clay's  theatrical  appeal  to  Van  Buren,  was 
awakened  from  his  reverie  by  observing  Webster  beckoning 
him  out  of  the  room.  The  entertainer  of  the  Whig  celebrities 
followed  the  god  of  his  idolatry  to  one  of  the  committee 
rooms,  where,  for  more  than  an  hour,  the  orator  "unburdened 
his  mind  fully  on  the  state  of  affairs  and  future  prospects." 
The  burden  of  it  all  was  the  importance  of  carrying  the  spring 
elections.  When  Hone  called  on  Clay,  he  found  him  of  the 
same  opinion.  "He  says  that  the  only  hope  is  the  election 
in  our  State  and  in  Pennsylvania."  Meeting  John  Quincy 
Adams,  "that  sagacious  man,"  he  found  that  the  former 
President  shared  the  belief  that  "our  only  hope  lies  in  the 
elections  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  particularly  our 
charter  election."  1  That  the  Administration  forces  and  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet  were  equally  impressed  with  the  strategic 
value  of  victories  in  New  York  City  is  disclosed  in  a  letter 
from  Major  Lewis  to  James  A.  Hamilton,  "Have  you  any 
doubt  of  succeeding  at  your  election?"  he  wrote.  "I  hope 
not;  yet  I  confess  I  have  my  fears.  The  strongest  ground 
to  take  with  the  people  is  the  fact,  that  under  the  existing 
arrangements  with  the  State  banks,  the  whole  revenue  col 
lected  through  your  customs  house  is  left  to  be  dispensed  in 
your  own  city,  instead  of  being  transferred  to  a  neighboring 
rival  city.  Our  friends  should  ring  the  changes  upon  this 
view  in  every  quarter  of  the  city."  2  It  is  thus  evident  that 
the  contending  forces  were  concentrating  for  the  election  of 

1  Hone's  Diary,  March  4,  5,  6,  1834.  Hamilton's  Reminiscences.  282. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  355 

aldermen  and  a  mayor  in  a  city  then  numbering  few  more 
than  200,000  people. 

Early  in  March  the  Opposition  deliberately  made  the 
Bank  the  issue  by  nominating  Gulian  C.  Verplanck,  driven 
from  Congress  by  the  Democrats  because  of  his  fidelity  to  the 
Bank,  and  planning  for  a  popular  vindication  of  that  institu 
tion.  Two  days  later  the  Democrats  nominated  Cornelius 
W.  Lawrence,  who  had  been  exceedingly  bitter  against  the 
Bank  while  in  Congress.  Accepting  Hone's  opinion  that 
"the  personal  characters  of  both  the  gentlemen  is  above  re 
proach,"  1  the  election  would  definitely  determine  the  drift 
of  public  opinion  on  the  contest  then  in  its  most  bitter  stage. 
The  election  returns  were  confusing.  The  mayoralty  can 
didate,  who  had  been  ousted  from  his  seat  in  Congress  be 
cause  of  his  support  of  Biddle,  was  defeated  by  the  man  whose 
bitterness  against  the  Bank  while  in  Congress  had  been 
notable.  The  Democrats  won  here,  and  the  Opposition  lost. 
The  fact  that  the  latter  elected  a  majority  of  the  aldermen 
was  loudly  hailed  as  a  vote  against  Jackson  on  the  Bank 
question,  although,  in  the  more  spirited  contest  for  the  more 
important  office,  the  Bank  champion  was  overwhelmed  by 
the  Democrat.  The  Opposition  was  jubilant,  or  pretended 
to  jubilation.  A  great  celebration  was  held  at  Castle 
Garden,  and  the  faithful  poured  forth  by  the  tens  of  thous 
ands  to  sit  about  the  tables  "spread  in  a  row"  and  to  do  full 
justice  to  the  "three  pipes  of  wine  and  forty  barrels  of  beer 
placed  in  the  center  under  an  awning."  Full  of  fire  and  froth, 
the  exuberant  partisans,  learning  that  Webster  was  the  guest 
of  a  lady  at  her  home,  moved  thence  en  masse,  where  the  ora 
tor,  who  had  declined  to  appear  among  the  beer  kegs  in  the 
Garden,  presented  himself  at  the  window  and  delivered  "an 
address  full  of  fire"  which  "was  received  with  rapturous 
shouts."  2  All  over  the  Eastern  country  the  Whigs  insisted 
on  accepting  the  defeat  of  the  Bank  candidate  for  mayor  as 

1  Hone's  Diary,  March  21,  1834.  2  Ibid..  April  15,  1834. 


356    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

a  victory  for  the  Bank,  and  the  Philadelphians  had  "a  grand 
celebration  at  Powelton  on  the  Schuylkill";  the  Whigs  of 
Albany  "fired  one  hundred  guns";  the  Whigs  of  Buffalo 
"made  a  great  affair  of  it  with  guns  and  illuminations"; 
those  of  Portsmouth  "received  the  news  with  one  hundred 
guns"  and  "had  a. town  meeting  and  made  speeches."1 
Meanwhile  the  Democrats  were  proclaiming  the  election  of 
Lawrence  a  Jacksonian  triumph.  After  the  various  salutes 
from  Portsmouth  to  the  Battery  of  a  hundred  guns,  and  the 
celebration  in  the  Garden  among  the  beer  kegs,  the  Demo 
crats  arranged  their  celebration  for  the  day  that  Lawrence 
was  to  make  his  triumphant  entry.  A  steamboat  went  down 
to  Amboy  to  receive  the  mayor-elect,  and  "with  colors  flying 
and  loud  huzzas,"  the  Jacksonians  sat  down  to  a  dinner  on 
board,  "where  Jackson  toasts  were  drunk  and  Jackson 
speeches  were  made."  Landing  at  Castle  Garden,  the  new 
mayor  was  conducted  in  a  "  barouche  drawn  by  four  white 
horses,  and  paraded  through  the  streets."  2 

But  the  desperate  Opposition,  hard  pressed,  and  requiring 
encouragement  for  its  followers,  succeeded,  through  exag 
gerations  and  red  fire,  in  convincing  the  rank  and  file  that  an 
anti-Jackson  wave  had  swept  the  Nation.  Rhode  Island, 
never  a  Jackson  State,  went  against  the  Democrats,  and  this 
was  celebrated  with  as  much  enthusiasm  as  though  a  strong 
hold  of  the  enemy  had  been  taken.  The  triumph  of  the  Whigs 
in  the  Philadelphia  ward  elections  was  exploited  as  a  signal 
triumph.  Virginia,  anti-Bank  as  well  as  anti-Jackson,  was 
lost  to  the  Democrats,  and  the  Opposition  interpreted  it  as 
a  pro-Bank  as  well  as  an  anti-Jackson  verdict.  In  Louisiana 
the  Whigs  won  on  the  tariff,  but  the  impression  was  given 
that  the  result  reflected  a  popular  resentment  of  the  mistreat 
ment  of  Nicholas  Biddle.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  intelligent 
politician  could  have  attached  any  particular  significance  to 
the  results  of  the  spring  elections,  and  the  leaders  immedi- 

1  Hone's  Diary,  April  23,  1834.  2  Ibid..  May  12.  1834. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  357 

ately  began  their  preparations  for  the  congressional  elections 
in  the  fall. 

n 

IN  these  elections  the  Opposition  to  Jacksonian  Democracy 
was  to  fight  for  the  first  time  under  its  new  party  name.  In 
February,  1834,  James  Watson  Webb,  the  unscrupulous 
speculator  in  Bank  stock,  and  editor  of  the  "Courier  and 
Enquirer"  of  New  York  City,  had  proposed  that  the  com 
bination  against  the  policies  of  Jackson  should  be  known  as 
the  Whig  Party.  "It  is  a  glorious  name,"  said  John  Forsyth, 
"and  I  have  no  doubt  they  will  disgrace  it."  Within  six 
months  the  National  Republicans  and  the  An ti -Masons 
disappeared  —  united  under  the  Whig  banner.  In  Septem 
ber,  1834,  Niles  records,  in  his  "Register,"  that,  "as  if  by 
universal  consent,  all  parties  opposed  to  the  present  Admin 
istration  call  themselves  Whigs."  And  all  who  called  them 
selves  Whigs  denounced  the  Jacksonians  as  Tories.  It  was  a 
pretty  conceit.  The  WThigs  of  England  had  fought  the  bat 
tles  of  the  people  against  the  usurpations  of  the  throne,  and 
the  WThigs  of  America  were  fighting  the  usurpations  of  Jack 
son.  The  Constitution  against  anarchy,  the  people  against 
the  Power  —  such  was  the  fight  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  Henry 
Clay,  and  John  C.  Calhoun  against  Jackson. 

A  more  incongruous  combination  of  contradictions  and  a 
more  sinister  and  unholy  alliance  than  that  of  the  Whigs  of 
the  Jacksonian  period  has  never  appeared  in  the  political  life 
of  the  Republic.  These  men  held  common  opinions  on  none 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  government.  A  few  years, 
and  few  of  the  leaders  and  founders  could  agree  as  to  the 
character  of  the  combination.1  The  only  plank  in  the  plat 
form  of  this  ragged  array  on  which  all  could  stand  was  a 
hatred  of  Andrew  Jackson.  That  was  the  open  sesame  to 

1  Professor  Tyler,  in  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  478,  graphically  shows  the 
hotchpotch  nature  of  the  alliance. 


358    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  temple.  Beyond  that  no  questions  were  asked.,  Born 
with  the  seed  of  inevitable  disintegration,  it  was  to  stagger 
along  through  twenty  years,  to  end  without  a  mourner,  and 
to  leave  no  record  worthy  of  an  epitaph.  And  about  the  time 
of  its  birth,  and  after  its  insignificant  successes  in  the  spring 
elections,  that  astute  journalist  and  politician,  Thomas 
Ritchie,  of  the  "Richmond  Enquirer,"  foresaw  its  future 
with  the  clear  light  of  a  prophet.  "When  it  comes  to  act 
upon  any  policy  or  principle,"  he  wrote,  "not  connected 
with  a  hatred  of  Jackson,  it  must  fall  to  pieces  and  com 
mence  a  war  inter  se.  It  contains  all  the  elements  of  dissolu 
tion,  and  is  destined  to  share  the  fate  of  other  monstrous 
alliances."  l 

But  its  creators  were  not  concerned  in  1834  with  any 
thing  further  than  the  overthrow  of  Jackson  and  his  follow 
ers.  Not  daring  to  advance  a  constructive  programme,  for 
the  very  effort  would  have  wrecked  the  party,  they  confined 
themselves  to  extravagant  and  absurd  denunciations  of 
Jackson  as  a  tyrant  usurping  power  and  clambering  to  a 
throne.  The  congressional  campaign  opened  with  a  rush. 
All  over  the  land  the  Whigs  were  raising  liberty  poles  — 
because  they  were  fighting  the  battle  of  liberty  against  the 
despot.  And  Nicholas  Biddle  and  his  Bank,  as  usual,  wore 
the  liberty  cap.  When  Congress  adjourned  in  June,  the 
moneyed  institution  was  in  a  dying  condition,  and  the 
money  market  was  again  about  normal.  Only  a  signal 
Whig  triumph  could  now  save  the  institution  on  Chestnut 
Street. 

m 

WITH  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  Jackson,  with  his  cus 
tomary  complacency  and  confidence  in  the  support  of  the 
people,  set  forth  for  the  Hermitage  for  a  much-needed  rest. 
He  had  just  again  reorganized  his  Cabinet  because  of  the  fail- 

1  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  359 

ure  of  the  Senate  to  confirm  Taney  and  the  resignation  of 
Louis  McLane.  The  motive  for  the  latter's  retirement  is  only 
conjectural.  That  he  had  never  felt  at  home  in  the  Cabinet 
circle,  we  may  well  believe.  While  in  the  Cabinet,  he  was  not 
of  it.  But  for  the  constant  friendship  and  support  of  Van 
Buren,  his  position  would  have  been  delicate  indeed.  He  was 
out  of  sympathy  with  Jackson  at  every  stage  of  the  Bank 
fight.  He  would  have  renewed  the  old  charter  without  a 
change;  would  have  renewed  it  with  concessions  from  the 
Bank;  but  he  would  have  renewed  it.  With  the  removal  of 
the  deposits  he  was  entirely  out  of  sympathy.  He  would 
not  have  removed  them  at  all;  but,  if  removed,  he  would  not 
have  removed  them  until  Congress  had  convened.  His  so 
cial  affiliations  were  largely  with  the  old  official  aristocracy. 
That  he  entertained  presidential  aspirations  was  generally 
understood,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  considered  a 
complete  separation  from  the  Administration  advantageous 
to  his  interests.  His  associations  were  such  that  he  could  not 
have  heard  much  that  was  not  venomously  hostile  to  Jackson 
and  the  Jacksonians.  But,  a  gentleman  of  dignity,  he  with 
drew  gracefully,  plunging  into  no  undignified  recriminations.1 
In  appointing  his  successor,  Jackson  turned  to  John 
Forsyth,  whose  services  as  Administration  floor  leader  in  the 
Senate  had  been  of  immense  value,  and  whose  urbanity, 
wisdom,  conservatism,  diplomatic  experience,  fitted  him  for 
the  post  better  than  any  of  his  Jacksonian  predecessors.  To 
the  place  left  vacant  by  Taney,  he  transferred  Mr.  Woodbury, 
and  to  the  navy  he  appointed  Mahlon  Dickerson  of  New 
Jersey,  a  gentleman  of  extensive  public  experience  as  a  Sena 
tor  for  sixteen  years.  Just  previous  to  his  appointment,  he 
had  declined  the  Russian  Mission.  This  was  the  only  Cabinet 
upheaval  of  Jackson's  time  which  had  not  been  accompanied 
with  much  bitterness,  with  charges  and  countercharges. 

1  Van  Buren,  finding  his  friend  treacherous,  discusses  the  resignation  and  the 
character  of  McLane  at  length  in  his  Autobiography,  611. 


360    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Thus,  with  affairs  in  Washington  in  capable  hands,  with 
victory  in  the  Bank  fight  on  his  side,  with  the  delights  of  the 
Hermitage  just  beyond,  the  iron  man  set  forth  in  high  spirits 
and  with  no  regrets  or  fears.  The  Biddle  threat  of  more 
"discipline"  for  the  people  during  the  summer  and  autumn, 
because  of  the  failure  of  Congress  to  recharter  the  Bank,  had 
not  disturbed  him  so  much  as  it  had  alarmed  the  Whigs. 
Those  in  Boston  met  the  threat  with  a  counter-threat  of  de 
nunciation,  and  those  in  New  York  warned  Biddle  that  more 
distress  would  certainly  prove  disastrous  to  the  Whigs  in  the 
fall  elections.  Biddle  deeply  resented  the  criticism  of  the 
Whigs,  who,  under  the  leadership  of  Clay,  had  practically 
blackmailed  him  into  using  the  Bank's  power  against  the 
Democrats.  When  those  of  Boston  warned  that  more  dis 
cipline  of  the  people  might  "even  create  a  necessity  for  the 
Whigs,  in  self-defense,  to  separate  themselves  entirely"  from 
his  institution,  he  wrote  in  defiant  mood  to  the  president  of 
his  Boston  branch  that  "if  ...  any  political  party  or  associa 
tion  desires  to  separate  itself  from  the  Bank  —  be  it  so."  He 
had  not  read  the  letter  to  the  board  of  directors  lest  the 
members  favorable  to  the  Democrats  might  use  it  to  the  dis 
advantage  of  the  Whigs.1  But  he  was  to  find  that  his  frown 
had  lost  its  force.  Another  Whig  from  New  York  wrote 
of  much  dissatisfaction  in  that  city  and  State  among  the 
Bank's  friends  and  "those  of  influence  in  the  Whig  Party 
—  and  sure  I  am  that  it  is  increasing  every  day."  The  feeling 
was  prevalent,  encouraged  by  the  views  of  Albert  Gallatin, 
that  the  Bank  could  have  relieved  the  distress  had  it  so  de 
sired.  And  Alexander  Hamilton,  the  brother  of  Jackson's 
friend,  and  son  of  the  father  of  the  National  Bank,  wrote  a 
little  later  to  a  correspondent  that  "it  has  been  found  expe 
dient  to  abandon  the  Bank  in  our  political  pilgrimage."  He 
found  that  "the  people  are  now  familiarly  acquainted  with 
the  immense  power  of  a  national  bank  and  apprehend  all 

1  Biddle  to  Appleton,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  240. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  361 

kinds  of  terrible  consequences  from  its  exercise." 1  Thus,  in 
stead  of  more  "  discipline,"  the  Bank  found  it  possible  to  take 
steps,  which,  according  to  Catterall,  justified  Jackson,  the 
following  December,  in  saying  in  his  Message  that  "the 
Bank  .  .  .  announced  its  ability  and  readiness  to  abandon 
the  system  of  unparalleled  curtailment .  .  .  and  to  extend 
its  accommodations  to  the  community." 

Just,  as  in  1832,  when  floating  down  the  Ohio  on  his  last 
visit  to  the  Hermitage  during  the  presidential  campaign, 
Andrew  Jackson  was  at  peace  with  himself  and  the  world. 
But  his  friends  had  given  orders  to  take  nothing  for  granted 
and  to  open  the  fighting  along  the  whole  line.  They  had  a 
twofold  purpose  —  to  hold  the  line  in  Congress,  and  to  de 
feat,  wherever  possible,  any  senatorial  enemies  who  were 
candidates  for  reelection.  Blair,  of  the  "  Globe,"  began  to 
issue  special  editions  and  to  send  them  broadcast  all  over  the 
country. 

The  fight,  as  it  was  waged  in  New  York,  Virginia,  and 
Mississippi,  will  suffice  to  illustrate  the  general  character  and 
method  of  the  campaign.  In  all  three  States  the  Bank  was 
the  issue.  Even  the  most  hopeful  of  the  Whigs  entertained 
no  illusions  as  to  Pennsylvania,  where  the  most  powerful 
financial  and  commercial  interests  were  arrayed  with  the 
Bank.  The  two  parties  in  the  Empire  State  were  mobilized, 
organized  on  a  military  footing,  and  ready  and  eager  for  the 
fray.2  The  elections  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  were 
held  in  October,  a  month  before  those  in  New  York,  and  the 
first  shock  to  the  Whigs  came  in  the  returns  from  these  two 
States.  That  Pennsylvania,  the  home  of  Biddle,  Sergeant, 
and  Duane,  should  have  gone  against  the  Bank  and  for 
Jackson,  was  not  disappointing,  for  little  had  been  expected 
there.  But  much  was  expected  in  New  Jersey.  There  the 
issue  was  distinct.  The  two  Senators  from  that  State  had 

1  Hamilton  to  Woodworth,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  244. 

2  Hone's  Diary,  Oct.  4,  1834. 


362    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

voted  with  the  Bank  on  the  deposits  question.  The  Legisla 
ture  had  adopted  resolutions  commendatory  of  Jackson's 
actions,  and  in  his  Protest  the  fighting  President  had  not 
scrupled  to  quote  these  resolutions  to  prove  that  the  Sena 
tors  had  deliberately  misrepresented  their  people.  Senator 
Frelinghuysen,  in  commenting  upon  these  instructions,  had 
boasted  that  he  and  his  colleague  had  "dared  to  meet  the 
frowns  of  their  constituents,"  and  would  not  "bow  the  knee 
to  these  instructions."  *  Now  he  was  before  the  people  for 
reelection,  and  the  issue  was  plain.  The  people's  verdict  was 
unmistakable.  The  little  State  swept  into  the  Jackson 
column  with  a  substantial  majority,  and  Frelinghuysen  was 
retired. 

Goaded  by  the  sting  of  the  New  Jersey  defeat,  the  New 
York  Whigs  redoubled  their  efforts.  "The  Whigs  are  rais 
ing  liberty  poles  in  all  the  wards,"  wrote  Hone.  "I  went  to 
one  of  these  ceremonies  yesterday  at  the  corner  of  the  Bow 
ery  and  Hester  Street.  The  pole,  a  hundred  feet  high,  with 
a  splendid  cap  and  gilt  vane  with  suitable  devices,  was  es 
corted  by  a  procession  of  good  men  and  true."  2  Thus,  if  the 
"mob"  could  make  the  welkin  ring  at  Democratic  meetings, 
the  more  aristocratic  Whigs  could  sally  forth  from  their 
counting-rooms  and  libraries  to  rub  shoulders  with  the  com 
mon  herd  at  Hester  Street  and  the  Bowery  and  shout  ap 
proval  of  the  raising  of  a  pole.  But  all  was  in  vain.  By 
nine  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  first  day,  Hone  and  his 
fellow  Whigs  realized  that  "enough  was  known  to  satisfy  us 
to  our  hearts'  content  that  we  are  beaten  —  badly  beaten; 
worse  than  the  least  sanguine  of  us  expected."  3  The  jubilant 
Democrats,  however,  were  determined  that  the  Whig  leaders 
should  not  feel  utterly  deserted,  and  a  crowd  of  them  surged 
before  Hone's  house  with  hisses  and  catcalls  which  kept  him 
awake  all  night.  The  Lord  Holland  of  the  American  Whigs, 
who  was  sick  at  the  time,  was  inclined  to  resent  it,  but  the 

1  Gong.  Globe,  i,  318.  z  Diary,  Oct.  31.  1834.  3  Ibid.,  Nov.  5,  1834. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  363 

next  evening  he  found  consolation  in  dining  with  Webster 
who  "  was  in  a  vein  to  be  exceedingly  pleasant."  l 

Such  was  the  intensity  of  feeling  and  the  bitterness  of  the 
struggle  that  enthusiastic  partisans  partook  of  the  nature  of 
mobs  in  the  larger  centers.  Nowhere  were  the  Democrats  so 
intense  as  in  Philadelphia,  where,  on  election  day,  the  war 
ring  partisans  exchanged  shots,  the  headquarters  of  the 
Whigs  was  sacked  and  burned  by  a  mob  which  drove  back 
the  firemen  that  attempted  to  quench  the  flames.  A  number 
of  houses  were  completely  reduced  to  ashes.  Such  was  the 
panic  of  Nicholas  Biddle  that  the  day  before  the  election  he 
sent  his  wife  and  children  into  the  country,  filled  his  house 
with  armed  men,  and  prepared  for  a  siege.  The  Bank  build 
ing  bristled  with  the  bayonets  and  muskets  of  guards.  But 
when  the  gray  dawn  came,  the  one-time  financial  dictator 
found  that  none  of  his  property  had  been  molested.  It  was 
blow  enough  to  him  to  learn  that  the  Whigs,  the  country 
over,  had  gone  down  before  the  popular  uprising. 

But  the  bitterest  fight  was  waged  in  Virginia,  where  the 
situation  was  mixed  to  the  point  of  chaos.  The  State  was 
anti-Bank,  but  it  was  anti- Jackson.  Opposed  to  the  Bank,  it 
had  been  equally  opposed  to  the  removal  of  the  deposits. 
The  feeling  in  Richmond  was  so  inflamed  that  only  personal 
respect  for  Ritchie  saved  the  "Enquirer  "  from  mob  violence, 
for  the  courageous  editor  stuck  to  his  guns  and  tried  to  divert 
attention  to  the  Bank  itself.  Administration  papers  were 
established  throughout  the  State  with  instructions  to  follow 
the  lead  of  his  pen.  The  Virginia  plan  was  twofold:  to 
make  the  most  of  the  unpopularity  of  Leigh,  who  was  again 
a  candidate  for  the  Senate,  and  to  divide  and  distract  the 
Whigs  by  playing  Clay  against  Calhoun.  Nowhere  did  the 
Democrats  appreciate,  as  they  did  in  Virginia,  the  impos 
sible  nature  of  the  Whig  combination,  and  they  dwelt  upon 
its  inconsistencies  from  the  beginning.  Clay  announced 

1  Diary.  Nov.  6. 1834. 


364    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

that  he  was  not  a  candidate  for  the  presidential  nomination 
in  1836.  "But  Mr.  Clay  knows  not  himself,"  wrote  Ritchie. 
"But  ambition  does  not  burn  so  intensely  in  his  bosom  as  it 
does  in  the  heart  of  another  leader  of  the  Senate  (Mr.  Cal- 
houn).  If  recent  signs  do  not  deceive  us,  this  extraordinary 
man  (extraordinary  every  way  for  the  vigor  of  his  mind,  the 
variety  of  his  principles,  and  the  intensity  of  his  ambition) 
will  soon  take  the  field,  with  feeble  hopes  of  winning  the 
votes  of  the  South,  as  well  as  the  support  of  the  Bank. 
Then  we  shall  see  under  which  king  the  various  members 
of  the  opposition  will  range  themselves."1  This  irrepressible 
conflict  of  Whig  ambitions  and  interests  was  played  upon  by 
the  Democratic  press  of  Virginia  all  through  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1834. 

But  the  immediate  purpose  of  the  Virginia  Democrats  was 
to  humiliate  Leigh,  who  was  unpopular  with  the  masses  be 
cause  of  his  bitter  fight  in  the  Constitutional  Convention 
against  the  extension  of  the  suffrage.  And  he  was  as  strongly 
with  the  Bank  as  Virginia  was  against  it.  A  house-to-house 
canvass  was  made,  and  in  districts  where  a  majority  were 
found  against  him  it  was  proposed  to  evoke  the  right  of 
instructions  to  Assemblymen.  The  plan  succeeded  to  the 
extent  of  disclosing  a  majority  hostile  to  the  reelection  of 
Leigh,  but  the  Whigs,  who  carried  the  State,  succeeded  after 
a  bitter  struggle  in  returning  him  through  a  flagrant  disre 
gard  of  the  expressed  will  of  the  constituencies.  The  battle 
was  thus  but  half  lost.  The  Democrats  were  supplied  with 
ammunition  they  were  to  use  with  deadly  effect,  and  within 
little  more  than  a  year  they  were  to  drive  the  two  anti-Jack 
son  Senators  of  Virginia  into  private  life.  Ritchie  began 
the  next  year's  battle  without  delay.  The  "Enquirer"  was 
flooded  with  resolutions  and  letters  protesting  the  election 
of  Leigh  over  the  instructions  of  the  majority  of  the  people.2 

In  Mississippi  the  Jacksonians  determined  to  prevent  the 

1  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie,  160.  *  Ibid.,  166. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  365 

reelection  of  Senator  Poindexter,  long  the  idol  of  the  Missis 
sippi  Democracy,  who  had  turned  upon  Jackson  with  a  viru 
lence  scarcely  equaled  by  any  old-line  Federalist,  and  cast 
his  lot  with  Clay.  With  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  the 
Mississippi  Senator  hastened  home,  where  the  enemies  of  the 
Administration  had  planned  a  series  of  banquets  at  which  he 
was  to  denounce  the  President  and  vindicate  himself.  The 
Whigs  were  with  him.  The  Democrats,  delighted  with  a 
slashing  and  brilliant  assault  on  Poindexter  by  Robert  J. 
Walker,  put  that  able  publicist  in  the  field,  and  within  a 
week  he  was  engaged  in  one  of  the  most  spectacular  can 
vasses  Mississippi  had  ever  known,  firing  enormous  open-air 
meetings  of  frenzied  Jacksonians.  The  outcome  was  the 
election  of  Walker  —  a  victory  sweet  to  Jackson,  for  it  was 
the  vanquished  who  had  sponsored  the  resolution  attacking 
his  Protest.1  And  the  triumph  was  all  the  sweeter  from  the 
fact  that,  while  Poindexter  had  supported  the  Nullifiers, 
Walker  had  taken  the  lead  against  them  in  Mississippi,  on 
the  platform,  and  through  the  press. 

Thus  the  elections  of  1834  were  more  than  pleasing  to 
Jackson  and  his  party.  Two  of  his  strongest  senatorial  op 
ponents  had  lost  their  seats  as  a  result  of  their  opposition, 
and  Leigh  had  been  saved  only  by  a  disreputable  betrayal  of 
the  people.  In  the  Senate  the  Administration  was  strength 
ened;  and  in  the  House  the  Democratic  majority  was  re 
duced  but  eight  votes,  leaving  it  a  clear  majority  of  46  out 
of  242  members. 

Strangely  enough,  so  reliable  an  historian  as  McMaster 
has  described  these  elections  as  a  triumph  of  the  Whigs. 
Such  was  not  the  interpretation  of  the  Whigs  themselves. 
Hone  thought  that  they  were  "badly  beaten  —  worse  than 
the  least  sanguine  of  us  expected." 2  Webster  accepted  the 

1  The  story  of  the  Mississippi  contest  is  told  by  Senator  Foote  in  A  Casket  of  Rem 
iniscences,  £17-18. 

2  Diary,  Nov.  5,  1834. 


366    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

verdict  as  final,  and,  much  to  the  distress  and  indignation  of 
Biddle,  announced  that  he  was  through.  But  the  most  con 
clusive  evidence  of  the  contemporary  opinion  of  the  Whigs 
comes  from  Thurlow  Weed,  the  sagacious  Whig  journalist 
of  the  "Albany  Journal."  More  prescient  than  most  of  the 
Whig  leaders  of  the  time,  he  had  foreseen  the  inevitable  re 
sult  of  an  attempt  to  win  upon  the  Bank  issue.  Quite  early, 
when  Webster's  keynote  speech  on  the  Bank,  delivered  at  a 
mass  meeting  in  Boston,  was  sent  for  publication  to  all  the 
party  papers,  the  copy  that  reached  Weed  never  found  its 
way  into  the  "Albany  Journal." l  And  immediately  after  the 
election  in  1834,  he  editorially  expressed  the  feeling  which 
appears  to  have  taken  possession  of  the  party  generally. 
"There  is  one  cause,"  he  wrote,  "for  congratulations,  con 
nected  with  the  recent  election,  in  which  even  we  partici 
pate.  It  has  terminated  the  United  States  Bank  war.  .  .  . 
We  have  from  the  beginning  deprecated  the  successive  con 
flicts  in  defense  of  the  Bank.  .  .  .  But  we  have  gone  with  our 
friends  through  these  three  campaigns,  under  a  strong  and 
settled  conviction  that  in  every  issue  to  be  tried  by  the  people 
to  which  the  Bank  was  a  party,  we  must  be  beaten.  After 
struggling  along  from  year  to  year  with  a  doomed  Bank  upon 
our  shoulders,  both  the  Bank  and  our  party  are  finally  over 
whelmed."  2  Nor  is  it  surprising  that  Clay,  whose  selfishness 
had  forced  Biddle  into  making  the  recharter  a  campaign  issue, 
was  glad  to  dump  the  doomed  Bank  from  his  shoulders.  It 
is  impossible  to  follow  his  course,  pointing  as  every  act  does 
to  a  purely  party  purpose,  without  arriving  at  the  conviction 
that  he  really  cared  little  about  the  institution  on  Chestnut 
Street.  As  the  fight  became  more  hopeless,  he  found  the  im 
portunities  of  Biddle  more  irksome.  Viewed  purely  as  a  po 
litical  or  party  contest,  the  clever  politicians  who  dominated 
the  Jacksonian  camp  had  shown  far  more  prescience  and 
sagacity  than  the  wisest  of  the  Whigs.  Amos  Kendall  had  a 

1  Weed's  Autobiography,  i.  372.  2  Albany  Journal.  Nov.  15.  1834. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  367 

better  understanding  of  the  psychology  of  the  masses  than 
Clay  or  Webster.  Among  the  Whigs,  Weed  alone  saw  the 
end  from  the  beginning.  The  attempt  to  arouse  the  people 
in  behalf  of  a  great  moneyed  institution  against  the  attacks 
of  a  popular  hero  was  in  itself  a  grotesque  and  ghastly  ab 
surdity.  But  after  the  decision  had  been  made  to  under 
take  it,  the  methods  of  Biddle  and  his  political  allies  made 
defeat  a  certainty.  Frank  Blair,  of  the  "Globe,"  was  evi 
dently  sincere  in  his  assertion  that  had  he  been  permitted 
to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  Whigs,  he  could  not  have  hit 
upon  a  plan  more  satisfactory  to  the  Democrats. 
^Fhat  Jackson  knew  little  of  banking  and  advanced  some 
Strange  theories  in  the  course  of  the  fight;  that  he  resorted 
to  methods  of  violence  in  some  instances ;  and  that  he 
fought  to  kill,  rather  than  to  reform,  may  be  admitted.  But 
the  very  nature  of  the  fight  he  waged  compelled  the  Bank 
to  disclose  its  tremendous  power  over  the  prosperity  of 
the  people.  No  matter  what  they  may  have  thought  in  the 
beginning,  no  one  could  have  doubted  toward  the  end  tha 
the  Bank  did  have  the  power  to  precipitate  panics,  to  punis 
the  people  for  legislation  it  resented,  to  dominate,  in  the  encf, 
the  legislation  of  the  future  by  the  threat  of  reprisal  upon  t 
business  of  the  Nation.  No  one,  in  1834,  doubted  that  t 
National  Bank,  in  the  hands  of  a  man  like  Biddle  dominee 
ing  over  pliant  directors,  and  assuming  dictatorial  authorit 
over  the  members  of  Congress,  possessed  powers  incoi 
ible  with  the  preservation  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  The 
people.  From  that  day  on,  the  Bank  has  had  its  apologists 
among  historians,  and  Jackson  has  been  excoriated  as  an 
ignorant  usurper,  but  there  has  never  been  a  time  since  when 
the  American  people  would  have  tolerated  a  return  to  the 
system  that  was  destroyed.  Through  several  years  the  coun 
try  was  to  be  disturbed  by  the  sometimes  stumbling  proc 
esses  of  transition  from  the  old  to  the  new  system,  but  the 
Bank  fight  ended  with  the  verdict  of  the  polls  in  1834.  Only 


368    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  censure  of  the  Senate  remained  to  poison  the  mind  of 
the  iron  man  in  the  White  House.  The  Bank  lingered  on,  a 
little  while,  under  the  laws  of  Pennsylvania,  and  then  crashed 
to  the  earth,  ruining  many  of  its  supporters.1  And  on  the 
banker's  death,  Hone  copied  into  his  diary  the  comment  of 
William  Cullen  Bryant  in  the  "New  York  Evening  Post," 
that  Biddle  "died  at  his  country  seat  where  he  passed  the 
last  of  his  days  in  elegant  retirement,  which,  if  justice  had 
taken  place,  would  have  been  spent  in  the  penitentiary." 2 

The  prolonged  battle  has  left  a  lasting  impression  upon  the 
political  life  and  methods  of  the  Republic.  It  aroused,  as 
never  before,  that  class  consciousness,  to  which  politicians 
have  ever  since  appealed;  it  gave  dignity  to  demagogy,  and 
made  it  pay.  It  marked  the  beginning  of  the  active  partici 
pation  of  powerful  corporations,  as  such,  in  the  politics  of  the 
country,  witnessed  the  adoption  of  the  methods  of  intimida 
tion  and  coercion,  of  systematic  propaganda,  of  the  subsi 
dization  of  disreputable  newspapers.  From  that  day  on,  the 
powerful  corporation  has  been  anathema  to  the  masses,  mo 
nopoly  has  been  a  red  rag,  and  the  contest  between  capital 
and  labor  has  been  a  reality.  If  this  has  been  unfortunate,  the 
fault  has  been  no  less  with  Clay,  who  sought  and  made  the 
issue,  and  with  Biddle  and  his  arrogant  reliance  on  the  power 
of  money,  than  with  Jackson  and  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  who 
challenged  the  political  pretensions  of  the  Bank 

IV 

THE  Whig  leaders  entered  upon  the  congressional  session  of 
December  in  a  bitter  mood.  Calhoun  was  especially  vicious 
and  in  a  chronic  rage  against  the  President  and  the  Admin 
istration.  The  fury  of  the  Whigs  was  not  moderated  by  the 
fact  that  State  Legislatures  were  beginning  to  demand 
the  expunging  from  the  records  of  the  resolution  of  censure. 
Benton,  in  the  previous  session,  had  served  notice  of  his  in- 

»  Hone's  Diary,  April  17,  and  Dec.  14,  1841.  2  Ibid.,  Jan.  18,  1844. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  369 

tention  to  move  to  expunge,  and  the  Kitchen  Cabinet  in  the 
meanwhile  had  been  busy  in  building  backfires  against  the 
offending  Senators  among  their  constituents.  The  first  State 
to  act  was  Alabama.  The  day  before  Senator  King  presented 
the  Alabama  resolutions,  during  a  running  discussion  of  the 
revelations  of  mismanagement  and  crookedness  in  the  Post- 
Office  Department,  Senator  Preston  suggested  that  the  Sen 
ate  should  censure  some  one.  Just  whom  he  would  censure 
was  not  made  clear,  but  he  did  refer  to  the  previous  declara 
tion  of  Jackson  that  he  was  responsible  for  the  Executive  de 
partments.  "Does  any  one  doubt  the  turpitude  of  the  Post- 
Office?"  asked  Preston.  "When  hardly  the  age  of  man,  it 
is  found  steeped  in  corruption  the  most  foul,  the  most  mel 
ancholy.  If  the  President  is  responsible,  and  the  officers 
acted  improperly,  is  this  the  house  to  present  the  subject? 
And  shall  we  stand  by  without  saying  or  doing  anything  in 
regard  to  the  present  state  of  things  in  that  department  ?  " 

Calhoun  was  instantly  on  his  feet.  He  had  listened  to  the 
report  on  the  Post-Office  "with  sorrow  and  deep  mortifica 
tion."  After  twenty-two  years  of  connection  with  the  Gov 
ernment  he  was  able  to  say  that  "  in  all  that  time  the  charges 
of  corruption  against  all  the  departments  of  the  Government 
that  he  had  ever  heard  of  were  not  equal  to  the  disclosures 
here  made."  In  truth  he  thought  that  "the  exhibition  would 
disgrace  the  rottenest  age  of  the  Roman  Republic."  He 
hoped  some  resolution  would  be  presented. 

This  implied  threat  was  not  lost  on  the  ever  alert  Benton, 
and  on  the  following  day  he  took  the  floor,  reminded  the 
Senate  of  his  promise,  declared  that  nothing  less  than  the 
expurgation  of  the  offensive  censure  would  suffice,  and 
served  notice  of  his  intention  to  present  the  resolution.  This 
opened  the  first  debate  on  expurgation.  Clay,  with  a  per 
sonal  fling  at  Benton,  saltily  expressed  the  hope  that  before 
acting  the  Missourian  would  carefully  examine  the  Con 
stitution,  and  concluded  that  he  would  "oppose  such  a  res- 


370    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

olution  at  the  very  threshold."  Preston  conceded  that  his 
party  had  been  "beaten  down,"  and  demanded  to  know 
whether  "everything  that  we  have  done  shall  be  expunged." 
Calhoun  would  "like  to  see  a  resolution  which  proposed  to 
repeal  the  journal  —  to  repeal  a  fact."  If  the  thing  could 
be  done,  "the  Senate  itself  could  be  expunged,"  and  the 
Government  itself  was  at  an  end.  He  was  "anxious  to  see 
who  would  attempt  to  carry  out  the  doctrines  of  the  Protest 
of  last  year  —  doctrines  as  despotic  as  those  which  were 
held  by  the  autocrat  of  all  the  Russias." 

To  this,  King  took  vigorous  exception.  The  resolution  of 
censure  was  not  " a  fact."  "The  Democracy  of  this  land  has 
spoken  and  pronounced  its  condemnation  of  the  proceeding." 
He  had  hoped,  when  Calhoun  declared  on  a  previous  occa 
sion  that  he  would  act  for  the  country,  he  would  have  little 
more  to  do  with  party,  but  he  had  since  manifested  a  very 
different  feeling.  Stung  by  the  taunt,  Calhoun  made  no  half 
hearted  denial  of  partisan  bias.  "I  have  no  purpose  to  serve," 
he  said.  "I  have  no  desire  to  be  here."  And  then,  with  evi 
dent  insincerity,  he  added,  "Sir,  I  would  not  turn  upon  my 
heel  to  be  entrusted  with  the  management  of  the  Govern 
ment."  l 

When,  a  few  weeks  later,  the  day  before  the  expiration 
of  the  session,  the  discussion  was  renewed,  Hugh  Lawson 
White,  now  rapidly  cooling  to  frigidity  toward  Jackson, 
moved  to  amend  Benton's  resolution  by  striking  out  the 
word  "expunge"  and  substituting  "rescind,  reverse,  and  to 
make  null  and  void."  This  incident  has  been  given  an  his 
torical  importance  beyond  its  due  by  many  who  have  attrib 
uted  to  the  motion  the  final  break  between  Jackson  and 
White.  The  action  of  the  Tennessee  Senator  unquestionably 
outraged  the  Jacksonians,  who  ascribed  it  to  hostility,  but 
such  was  not  the  dominating  motive.  He  took  the  position 
that  he  could  not  vote  to  "obliterate  and  deface  the  journal 
1  Cong.  Globe,  j,  176. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  371 

of  the  Senate."  Benton  protested  that  the  word  "expunge" 
was  strictly  parliamentary.  To  his  astonishment  and  cha 
grin,  he  discovered  that  White  was  not  the  only  Democrat 
who  objected  to  his  phrasing  of  the  resolution,  as  others 
crowded  about  him  to  urge  the  acceptance  of  the  amendment. 
Finding  himself  almost  deserted,  he  afterwards  said  that  he 
"yielded  a  mortifying  and  reluctant  consent."  1  All  this  the 
proud  Missourian  could  stand.  But  when  Webster  immedi 
ately  arose,  and,  after  sounding  the  paean  of  triumph,  moved 
that  the  resolution  be  laid  upon  the  table;  and  after  Clay  and 
Calhoun  had  spoken  with  bitterness  and  contempt,  the 
spirit  of  compromise  died  out  in  his  heart,  and  he  then  and 
there  promised  himself  to  continue  the  battle.  The  debate 
was  acrimonious  in  spirit,  and  in  the  midst  of  "great  excite 
ment."  2  This  was  the  preliminary  battle  which  was  to  have 
a  spectacular  ending  in  a  Jacksonian  triumph  a  short  time 
before  the  expiration  of  the  iron  man's  Presidency. 


To  the  Jacksonians,  the  most  distressing  feature  of  the 
short  session  was  the  disclosure  of  the  utter  incompetency, 
blackened  by  positive  crookedness,  in  the  rapidly  grow 
ing  Post-Office  Department,  which  called  for  the  man 
agement  of  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  organizing  and 
business  ability.  Major  Barry  possessed  neither  qualifi 
cation.  An  honest  man  himself,  without  the  slightest 
business  sense,  easily  imposed  upon,  surrounded  by  sub 
ordinates  who  were  scamps,  and  forced  to  deal  with  mail 
contractors  who  were  criminals,  he  lost  control  early  in  his 
administration.  When  the  Clayton  investigation  was  com 
pleted,  the  department  was  found  honeycombed  with  fraud, 
plastered  with  forgeries,  and  in  a  hopeless  financial  condi 
tion.  And  yet  no  one  seriously  suspected  Barry  of  complic- 

1  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  550. 

2  The  words  of  the  official  reporter  of  the  Congressional  Globe. 


372    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ity.  Clay,  who  had  lost  the  support  of  Barry,  his  neighbor 
in  Lexington,  on  the  "  bargain "  story,  did  not  hesitate  to 
exonerate  him  from  culpability.  But  there  was  no  defense 
for  the  conditions,  and  Jackson,  in  his  Message,  had  recom 
mended  a  complete  reorganization  of  the  department  better 
to  safeguard  the  public  interest.  The  two  parties  stood  to 
gether  on  the  Reorganization  Bill,  and  no  member  of  either 
party  attempted  any  justification  of  the  conditions.  But  the 
Democrats  were  on  their  toes  throughout  the  session  to  pre 
vent  any  personal  condemnation  of  either  Barry  or  Jackson. 
The  Whigs  lost  no  opportunity  to  capitalize  the  scandal. 
The  public  money  had  been  squandered.  Crooked  con 
tractors  had  been  permitted  to  loot  the  Treasury.  They 
did  not  know  the  extent  of  the  corruption,  nor  the  responsi 
bility  of  the  head  of  the  department,  but  they  did  know 
that  the  putridity  of  the  thing  had  never  been  approached 
in  American  history.  The  majority  report  of  the  investigat 
ing  committee  found  a  deficit  of  $800,000;  the  minority 
placed  the  amount  at  $300,000;  but  both  agreed  that  it  was 
due  in  part  at  least  to  maladministration.1  Felix  Grundy, 
who  had  charge  for  the  Administration,  rejoiced  in  the  fact, 
"to  the  honor  of  his  countrymen,"  that  no  one  "had  been 
found  to  accuse  the  Postmaster-General  of  corruption";2 
and  Senator  Bibb  of  Kentucky,  a  supporter  of  Clay,  paid 
tribute  to  the  personal  qualities  of  Barry  and  ascribed  the 
failure  to  "the  good  disposition  and  kindness  "of  the  head 
of  the  department,  which  had  been  imposed  upon  by  "inter 
ested  and  selfish  persons  to  further  their  own  private  inter 
ests."  Thus,  in  the  Senate,  the  debate  on  the  Reorganiza 
tion  Bill  was  conducted  with  decorum  and  without  exciting 
personalities.  An  utter  lack  of  system,  a  director  deficient  in 
business  sense  and  over-credulous,  and  all  preyed  upon  by 

1  Professor  MacDonald,  in  Jacksonian  Democracy,  p.  246,  says  that  "a  large  part 
of  the  deficit,  however,  was  fairly  chargeable  to  the  cost  of  the  large  number  of 
post-offices  and  post-routes  established  in  1832." 

2  Cong.  Globe,  I,  206. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  373 

dishonest  subordinates  and  criminally  inclined  speculators  — • 
such  was  the  sense  of  the  Senate. 

But  in  the  House,  Barry's  personal  integrity  was  not  to  go 
unchallenged.  In  the  lower  branch  he  was  unfortunate  in 
friends  who  loved,  not  wisely,  but  too  well,  who  thought 
to  prevent  assault  by  challenging  it.  Some  of  these  had 
avowed  a  disposition  to  consider  such  an  assault  a  personal 
offense.  During  a  night  session,  William  C.  Johnson  of  Mary 
land,  a  promising  and  eloquent  young  Whig  of  imposing 
personal  appearance,  sought  an  opportunity  to  affront  Rep 
resentative  Hawes  of  Kentucky,  a  member  of  the  special 
dueling  club.  An  insignificant  incident  during  the  discussion 
of  a  post-route  bill  sufficed.  On  obtaining  the  floor,  Johnson 
looked  significantly  at  Hawes,  and  with  sinister  deliberation 
began:  "It  has  been  broadly  hinted  by  some  gentlemen  .  .  . 
that  he  who  shall  have  the  temerity  to  criticize  the  acts  of  the 
Postmaster-General  must  answer  therefor  elsewhere  than  in 
this  hall.  .  .  .  Sir,  I  come  from  a  portion  of  the  country  where 
the  law  of  personal  responsibility  is  recognized  among  gen 
tlemen.  I  hold  myself  amenable  to  that  law  .  .  .;  and  now, 
in  the  face  of  those  menaces  which  have  been  thrown  out  on 
this  floor,  and  intending  to  be  responsible  for  what  I  am 
about  to  say,  I  declare  that  the  Post-Office  Department  is 
corrupt  from  head  to  foot,  through  and  through,  and  I  be 
lieve  that  the  head  of  the  department,  William  T.  Barry,  is 
as  culpable  as  any  officer  under  his  control." 

The  House  was  instantly  in  an  uproar  as  Hawes  rose  to 
ask  if  Johnson  meant  that  the  department  was  corrupt  from 
Barry  down.  The  young  blade  from  Maryland  jauntily 
replied  in  the  affirmative.  Hawes  said  that  Barry  was  "as 
honest  and  honorable  as  any  man  who  has  a  seat  on  this 
floor,"  and  asked  Johnson  for  the  grounds  for  his  charge.  In 
the  spirit  of  swashbuckler  he  had  set  out  to  be,  the  latter 
merely  reiterated  what  he  had  said.  There  was  no  misunder 
standing  the  meaning  of  the  situation  —  it  meant  a  duel  un- 


374    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

less  Johnson  would  agree  to  a  qualification  of  his  statement. 
To  all  such  appeals  he  was  adamant.  When,  as  a  result,  he 
was  challenged  by  Barry's  son,  he  began  to  hedge  with  the 
demand  that  the  duel  take  place  "immediately."  He  would 
not  even  consent  to  a  day's  delay,  and  young  Barry  withdrew 
the  challenge.  The  incident  proved  nothing  except  that 
in  the  Thirties  young  men  carried  chips  on  their  shoulders, 
and  bandied  words  lightly. 

The  contemporaries  of  Barry  exonerated  him,  and  history 
has  acquiesced  in  their  verdict.1  But  it  was  apparent  that 
his  usefulness  in  the  Cabinet  was  over.  He  had  never  been 
qualified.  While  the  debate  on  the  Reorganization  Bill  was 
still  in  progress,  Jackson  summoned  Amos  Kendall  to  the 
task  of  assuming  charge  and  placing  the  department  on 
a  business  basis.  At  that  time,  the  wizard  of  the  Kitchen 
Cabinet,  in  ill  health,  and  without  private  means,  was 
planning  to  retire  from  the  public  service  to  serve  his  fam 
ily  more  satisfactorily  in  a  financial  way.  He  demurred  — 
Jackson  insisted  —  and  in  the  end,  like  the  good  soldier  that 
he  was,  he  yielded. 

Barry,  gracefully  let  out  with  the  mission  to  Spain,  sailed 
away,  to  die  in  London  on  the  way,  and  Kendall  took  charge. 
It  is  amazing  that  the  party  prejudices  of  ninety  years  ago 
should  still  persist  and  refuse  justice  to  the  genius  of  this 
exceptional  man.  Professor  MacDonald  does  not  overstate 
when  he  describes  him  "as  a  man  of  remarkable  adminis 
trative  power."  2  Nor  is  it  probable  that  so  seasoned  an 
observer  of  public  men  as  Senator  Foote  was  unduly  im 
pressed  when  he  described  him  as  "discoursing  upon  the 
gravest  and  most  important  questions  with  a  profundity 
and  power  which  left  a  lasting  impress."3  Brilliant  with  the 
pen,  sagacious  beyond  almost  any  man  of  his  time  as  a  poli- 

1  Cong,  Globe,  i,  283,  merely  refers  to  the  excitement.  Sargent's  Public  Men  and 
Events  gives  the  details. 

2  Jacksonian  Democracy,  51.  8  A  Casket  of  Reminiscences,  65. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  375 

tician,  wise  in  counsel,  and  yet  capable  of  managing  the  dry- 
as-dust  details  of  the  most  practical  of  departments,  Amos 
Kendall  is  probably  one  of  the  greatest  all-around  publicists 
the  Republic  has  produced. 

His  first  step  on  taking  charge  was  thoroughly  to  familiar 
ize  himself  with  the  minute  details  of  his  office,  with  the 
special  functions  of  each  subordinate,  and  the  character  of 
the  man.  He  soon  discovered  the  secret  of  the  good-natured 
Barry's  undoing,  when  a  clerk,  suspected  of  having  relations 
with  a  contractor  as  agent,  approached  him  ingratiatingly 
with  the  announcement  that  he  "had  control  of  funds  and 
would  be  happy  to  accommodate  him  with  loans."  He  was 
promptly  discharged.1  After  a  thorough  survey,  Kendall 
concluded  that  "a  few  powerful  mail  contractors,  through 
favors  to  the  officers  and  more  influential  clerks,  had  really 
controlled  the  department,  and  for  their  own  selfish  ends, 
and  been  the  cause  of  all  its  embarrassments."  2  He  adopted 
stringent  rules  for  the  guidance  of  employees.  The  accept 
ance  of  a  gift  was  to  mean  dismissal.  So,  too,  with  free 
rides  on  stage-coaches,  steamboats,  or  railroad  cars  carrying 
mail.  Applying  the  rules  as  rigidly  to  himself  as  to  others, 
he  promptly  returned  all  presents  and  free  tickets,  and  thence 
forward  the  Postmaster-General  paid  his  way.  But  the  task 
confronting  him  was  tremendous.  The  department  was 
deeply  in  debt  and  was  sinking  deeper.  Not  satisfied  with, 
the  showing  of  corruption  by  the  congressional  committee, 
he  went  over  the  ground  and  uncovered  crookedness  it  had 
overlooked.  The  postmaster  of  New  York  was  caught  in  the 
net  and  instantly  dismissed.  Some  powerful  and  influential 
contractors  who  had  carried  the  mail  between  Washington 
and  Philadelphia  were  suspected,  and  Kendall  made  a 
searching  investigation.  Major  Barry,  still  in  Washington 
at  this  time,  became  seriously  disturbed,  and  conceived  the 
notion  that  his  successor  was  bent  on  embarrassing  him, 

>  Kendall's  Autobiography,  337.  *  Ibid. 


876    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  Kendall,  who  had  no  suspicion  of  his  predecessor,  sent 
for  him  and  personally  reassured  him.  But  there  were  other 
embarrassments  within  the  Administration  household.  Mrs. 
Eaton,  then  in  Washington,  and  intimate  with  the  family  of 
one  of  the  contractors  who  was  pressing  a  claim  that  Kendall 
was  examining,  called  one  day  on  Mrs.  Kendall  with  the  bald 
proposition  that  if  the  claim  were  allowed,  the  contractor 
would  present  the  wife  of  the  Postmaster-General  with  "a 
carriage  and  a  pair  of  horses."  The  incident  was  promptly 
reported  to  Kendall,  who  recorded  the  story  many  years 
later.1  Applying  himself  and  his  administrative  genius 
diligently  to  his  task,  driving  out  the  incompetent  and 
corrupt,  practicing  economy  while  extending  the  scope  of 
the  department's  services,  he  soon  put  it  on  a  paying  basis, 
and  before  the  expiration  of  Jackson's  Administration,  less 
than  two  years  later,  wiped  out  the  deficit.  This  is  the  man 
some  historians  have  described  as  a  vulgar  politician  and 
a  "printer." 

VI 

No  incident  of  this  session  so  well  illustrates  the  partisan  bit 
terness  and  the  venomous  nature  of  the  hates  engendered 
by  the  struggles  of  the  preceding  years  as  the  attempt  on  the 
life  of  Jackson  at  the  Capitol  on  January  30,  1835. 2  Under 
normal  conditions  and  in  ordinary  times  the  incident  would 
have  been  dismissed,  and,  properly,  ascribed  to  the  insan 
ity  of  the  assailant.  But  it  was  the  first  time  an  attempt 
had  been  made  upon  the  life  of  a  President  —  and  it  was 
a  President  who  had  been  intemperately  denounced  as  a 
tyrant,  despot,  and  wrecker  of  American  institutions  and 
liberties.  Just  as  John  Tyler  had  instantly  thought  of 
"political  effect,"3  the  ardent  friends  of  Jackson  caught 

1  Autobiography,  351. 

2  Miss  Martineau  graphically  describes  the  attempt  in  her  Retrospect  of  Western 
Travel,  i,  161. 

3  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I,  509. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  377 

the  same  idea  from  the  opposite  angle.  And  two  days  later, 
Frank  Blair  in  the  "Globe"  threw  out  the  suggestion  of  a 
conspiracy.  "Whether  Lawrence  [the  assailant]  has  caught, 
in  his  visits  to  the  Capitol,  the  mania  which  has  prevailed  the 
last  two  sessions  of  the  Senate,"  he  wrote,  "whether  he  has 
become  infatuated  with  the  chimeras  which  have  troubled 
the  brains  of  the  disappointed  and  ambitious  orators  who 
have  depicted  the  President  as  a  Caesar  who  ought  to  have  a 
Brutus;  as  a  Cromwell,  a  Nero,  a  Tiberius,  we  know  not.  If 
no  secret  conspiracy  has  prompted  the  perpetration  of  the 
horrid  deed,  we  think  it  not  improbable  that  some  delusion  of 
intellect  has  grown  out  of  his  visits  to  the  Capitol,  and  that 
hearing  despotism  and  every  horrible  mischief  threatened  to 
the  Republic,  and  revolution  and  all  its  train  of  calamities 
imputed  as  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  President's 
measures,  it  may  be  that  the  infatuated  man  fancied  that 
he  had  reason  to  become  his  country's  avenger.  If  he  had 
heard  and  believed  Mr.  Calhoun's  speech  of  day  before 
yesterday,  he  would  have  found  in  it  ample  justification  for 
his  attempt  on  one  who  was  represented  as  the  cause  of  the 
most  dreadful  calamities  of  the  Nation;  as  one  who  made 
perfect  rottenness  and  corruption  to  pervade  the  vitals  of  the 
Government,  insomuch  that  it  was  scarcely  worth  preserv 
ing,  if  it  were  possible."  l 

The  intimation  here  thrown  out  was  bitterly  resented  by 
the  Opposition  leaders,  and  particularly  by  Calhoun,  who 
was  mentioned.  The  very  fact  that  the  intemperate  and 
insincere  denunciations  of  high  officials  as  responsible  for 
the  distress  of  the  people,  acting  upon  the  diseased  brain, 
can  very  easily  persuade  the  madman  to  constitute  himself 
the  executioner,  served  to  infuriate  the  orators  who  had 
given  themselves  full  play.  Stung  to  the  quick,  Calhoun  de 
nounced  the  " Globe  "  as  "base and  prostitute,"  and  described 
it  as  "the  authentic  and  established  organ  "  of  Jackson,  "sus- 

1  Washington  Globe,  Feb.  2.  1835. 


378    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

tained  by  his  power  and  pampered  by  his  hands."  " To  what 
are  we  coming?"  he  exclaimed.  "We  are  told  that  to  de 
nounce  the  abuse  of  the  Administration  even  in  general 
terms,  without  personal  reference,  is  to  instigate  the  assas 
sination  of  the  Chief  Executive.  ...  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  as  to  my  duty.  I  am  no  candidate  for  any  office  —  I 
neither  seek  nor  desire  place  —  nothing  shall  intimidate  - 
nothing  shall  prevent  me  from  doing  what  I  believe  is  due  to 
my  conscience  and  my  country."  1  Mr.  Calhoun  sat  down 
—  and  Mr.  Leigh  immediately  rose  to  present  a  report  from 
the  Committee  on  Revolutionary  Claims. 

But  Mr.  Calhoun's  attack  on  the  "Globe"  was  not  un 
noticed  by  Blair,  who  replied  by  quoting  from  the  most 
venomous  portions  of  Calhoun's  and  Preston's  tirades  on  the 
Post-Office  report.  A  week  later  the  Administration  organ 
was  still  harping  on  conspiracy.  "Every  hour,"  wrote  Blair, 
"brings  new  proof  to  show  that  Lawrence  has  been  operated 
on  to  seek  the  President's  life,  precisely  as  we  had  supposed 
from  the  moment  we  learned  that  he  had  been  an  attendant 
on  the  debates  in  Congress."  2 

Very  soon  the  capital  was  startled  with  the  connection  of 
Senator  Poindexter's  name  with  that  of  the  assailant.  The 
obsession  took  possession  of  Jackson  that  his  Mississippi 
enemy  had  instigated  the  attempt  at  assassination.  The  ex 
amination  of  Lawrence  had  clearly  established  his  insanity; 
just  as  clearly  shown  that  he  had  taken  to  heart  the  charges 
of  Jackson's  enemies  that  he  was  responsible  for  the  distress 
of  the  people.  Finding  himself  hard  pressed  by  fate,  and 
ascribing  his  unhappiness  to  the  tyranny  of  Jackson,  he  had 
determined  to  kill  him.  That  explanation  was  convincing  and 
sufficient.  But  the  suggestion  that  Poindexter  had  planned 
the  deed  fell  on  receptive  soil.  Affidavits  had  been  placed 
in  Jackson's  hands  to  the  effect  that  "a  gentleman  who 
boarded  in  the  same  house  informed  him  that  Mr.  Poin- 

»  Cong.  Globe,  I,  183-84.  2  Washington  Globe,  Feb.  7.  1835. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  379 

dexter  had  interviews  with  Lawrence  but  a  few  days  before 
the  attempt  on  the  President's  life."  Some  time  before  the 
attack,  "a  captain  in  high  standing  in  the  navy"  had  said 
that  Poindexter,  on  a  voyage  to  New  Orleans,  had  threat 
ened  to  demand  personal  satisfaction  of  Jackson,  and  if 
he  refused  "he  would  shoot  him  wherever  he  saw  him." 
This  had  caused  such  anxiety  to  Jackson's  friends  that  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Hatch,  chaplain  of  the  Senate,  had  personally 
informed  Jackson  of  the  threat.  All  this,  followed,  after  the 
assault,  with  an  affidavit  that  Lawrence  had  been  seen  to 
"go  repeatedly  to  Poindexter's  residence,"  thoroughly  con 
vinced  Jackson,  who  appears  to  have  been  in  a  morbid  con 
dition  like  his  enemies.1  He  excitedly  charged  it  in  conversa 
tion  with  callers  at  the  White  House.  Miss  Martineau,  who 
was  friendly  with  the  Poindexters,  and  apparently  fond  of 
the  Senator,  was  literally  forced  to  leave  the  White  House  by 
the  abusive  denunciation  of  the  Mississippian.  She  became 
his  ardent  partisan,  and  took  pains  to  record  in  her  book  that, 
on  visiting  the  Poindexters  on  the  night  of  the  assault,  she 
had  "greatly  admired  the  moderation  with  which  Mr.  Poin 
dexter  spoke  of  his  foe."  2 

Hearing  from  many  quarters  of  Jackson's  charges,  Poin 
dexter  wrote  him  that  he  would  discredit  the  reports  un 
less  confirmed  by  the  President,  but  that  a  failure  to  reply 
would  be  accepted  as  a  confirmation.  Jackson  displayed  Poin 
dexter's  letter  to  visitors,  but  made  no  response.  Thus  a 
perfectly  foolish  notion  of  Jackson's  was  forced  to  an  issue. 
To  understand  the  feeling  behind  it  all,  and  to  appreciate 
the  bitter  hostility  of  Poindexter,  to  which  frequent  refer 
ence  has  been  made,  it  is  necessary  to  know  more  of  the  char 
acter  and  career  of  this  really  remarkable  but  tragic  figure. 

George  Poindexter  was  something  of  a  genius,  and,  until 
his  break  with  Jackson,  an  idol  of  Mississippi.  From  the 

1  Washington  Globe,  Feb.  23,  1835,  sets  forth  all  these  facts. 
3  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel,  I,  163. 


380    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

beginning  he  had  been  accorded  the  leadership  of  the  Demo 
cratic  or  Jeffersonian  Party  in  that  Territory.  His  early  con 
gressional  career  was  a  justification  of  his  leadership.  One 
who  knew  him  in  those  days  tells  us  that  "his  mind  was 
logical  and  strong;  his  conception  was  quick  and  acute;  his 
powers  of  combination  and  application  were  astonishing;  his 
wit  was  pointed  and  caustic,  and  his  sarcasm  overwhelm 
ing."  x  These  qualities  made  him  a  tremendous  power  upon 
the  stump  with  the  then  primitive  people  of  his  State.  In 
the  gubernatorial  office  he  rendered  invaluable  service  which 
strengthened  his  hold  upon  the  masses.  On  the  bench,  he 
was  noted  for  his  ability  and  justice,  and,  among  the  lawyers, 
he  was  conceded  to  have  few  equals  before  a  jury.  During 
the  War  of  1812  he  had  further  endeared  himself  to  the 
Mississippians  by  his  patriotic  appeal  for  preparation,  and, 
after  he  had  aroused  the  Territory  to  fever  heat,  and  Jack 
son  had  appeared  upon  the  scene,  he  became  a  volunteer  aid 
upon  the  staff  of  the  future  President.  It  was  to  Poindexter 
that  the  negro  or  soldier  carried  the  infamous  British  counter 
sign,  "Booty  and  Beauty,"  and  it  was  Poindexter  who  con 
veyed  it  to  Jackson.  Later  his  enemies  charged  that  he  had 
forged  it  to  win  the  favor  of  the  General.  That  such  a  man 
should  have  made  enemies  was  inevitable.  So  bitter  were  his 
denunciations  of  his  political  enemies,  so  unscrupulous  his 
use  of  terms,  that  at  one  time  a  conspiracy  was  formed  to 
force  him  into  a  duel  and  kill  him.  The  opportunity  came 
after  a  peculiarly  vitriolic  attack  upon  a  wealthy  merchant 
who  affiliated  with  the  Federalists.  The  merchant  chal 
lenged  and  was  killed.  Then  Poindexter 's  enemies  charged 
that  he  had  fired  before  the  word  was  given. 

Nowhere  in  the  campaign  of  1828  did  Jackson  receive 
more  ardent  support  than  in  Mississippi  where  his  old  friend 
Poindexter  directed  his  forces,  and  one  year  after  his  in 
auguration,  the  lieutenant  entered  the  Senate,  and  almost 

1  Sparks,  Memories  of  Fifty  Years,  335. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  381 

immediately  the  feud  between  the  erstwhile  friends  began. 
The  sordid  feature  of  the  story  is  the  fact  that  it  grew  out  of 
a  patronage  controversy.  Jackson  had  determined  on  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  Tennesseean,  a  neighbor  of  the  Hermitage,  to 
the  land  office  of  Mississippi.  Poindexter  protested  that  this 
patronage  belonged  to  his  State  and  to  him.  Jackson  refused 
to  yield.  Poindexter  prevented  the  confirmation  of  the  Ten 
nesseean.  Jackson  made  a  recess  appointment,  and  thence 
forward  the  two  comrades  of  1812  were  at  swords'  points. 
Thus  far  Jackson  was  manifestly  in  the  wrong.  His  loyalty 
to  friendship  cannot  explain  his  disloyalty  to  Poindexter  — 
who  was  also  a  friend,  and  a  friend  in  need.  But  such  was 
the  Mississippian's  prejudice  and  hate  that  he  abandoned, 
not  only  the  President  and  purely  Administration  measures, 
but  the  principles  he  had  espoused  and  advocated  for  a 
generation.  He  crossed  the  Rubicon,  burned  the  bridges,  and 
became  a  special  favorite  of  Clay's.  In  every  great  fight  of 
the  Jackson  period,  Poindexter  was  found  arrayed  with  the 
Opposition.  He  stood  with  the  Bank,  favored  the  censure, 
and  offered  the  resolutions  denunciatory  of  the  Protest.  In 
the  Nullification  contest,  he  had  essayed  to  lead  the  Nulli- 
fiers,  and  became  more  offensive  than  Calhoun. 

Unfortunately  for  Poindexter,  in  the  fighting  that  fol 
lowed  he  was  far  from  invulnerable  on  the  personal  side. 
Having  been  unfortunate  in  his  domestic  relations,  he  had 
divorced  his  wife,  denied  the  paternity  of  his  children,  and 
plunged  into  the  most  reckless  dissipation.1  His  indecent 
reflections  upon  the  purity  of  his  wife  drove  her  family, 
extensive  and  influential,  to  his  enemies;  his  intemperate 
tirades  against  Jackson  alienated  the  dominant  Democratic 
sentiment  of  the  State;  and  while  he  fought  boldly  and  bit 
terly  to  sustain  himself,  he  failed,  and,  at  the  time  of  the 
attack  on  Jackson  by  the  madman  at  the  Capitol,  was  so 
discredited  in  Mississippi  that  he  was  planning  to  leave  the 

1  Sparks,  Memories  of  Fifty  Years. 


382    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

State,  with  his  second  wife,  on  the  expiration  of  his  term.  A 
man  of  genius  whose  morals  failed  to  sustain  his  mentality 
—  such  the  epitaph  of  George  Poindexter.1 

Three  weeks  after  Lawrence  had  fired  and  failed,  Poin 
dexter  called  the  Senate's  attention  to  an  anonymous  letter 
stating  that  affidavits  were  in  the  hands  of  the  President 
charging  that  interviews  had  taken  place  between  the  assail 
ant  and  himself  a  few  days  before  the  attempt  on  Jackson's 
life,  and  asking  the  appointment  of  a  special  committee  of 
investigation.  Henry  Clay,  avowing  that  the  rumors  "in 
spired  him  with  nothing  but  the  deepest  mortification  and 
regret,"  and  that  it  was  "impossible  to  credit  the  statement 
that  affidavits  should  have  been  procured  at  the  instance  of 
the  Chief  Executive  for  the  purpose  of  implicating  a  Senator 
of  the  United  States  in  so  foul  a  transaction,"  reluctantly 
consented  to  an  investigation.  Without  further  discussion, 
a  committee,  consisting  of  John  Tyler,  chairman,  Smith, 
Mangum,  King,  and  Silas  Wright,  was  appointed,  with  per 
mission  to  sit  during  the  sessions  of  the  Senate;  and  three 
days  later  it  unanimously  exonerated  Poindexter  from  sus 
picion.  Webster  asked  for  the  yeas  and  nays  on  its  accept 
ance;  every  Senator  voted  yea,  and  thus  ended  the  most 
unfortunate  incident  in  the  career  of  Andrew  Jackson.  The 
"Washington  Globe,"  which  had  published  the  affidavits, 
wholly  discredited  them  about  the  same  time.2 

vn 

THE  Calhoun  inquiry  "into  the  extent  of  federal  patronage, 
the  circumstances  which  have  contributed  to  its  great  in 
crease  of  late,  the  expediency  and  practicability  of  reducing 
the  same,  and  the  means  of  such  reduction,"  served  further 
to  fan  the  flames  of  partisan  madness  during  this  session. 

1  Sparks,  Memories  of  Fifty  Years,  336-41 ;  also,  Foote's  Casket,  of  Reminiscence* \ 
218-20. 

2  Washington  Globe,  Feb.  28,  1835. 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  383 

Persisting  in  the  fallacy  that  he  was  not  moved  by  partisan 
or  political  considerations,  he  suggested  that  the  committee 
be  composed  of  two  members  of  each  party.  The  Senate, 
however,  was  not  deceived  as  to  his  purpose,  and  selected 
four  enemies  of  the  Administration,  Calhoun,  Webster, 
Southard,  and  Bibb,  and  two  Democrats,  Benton,  and  King 
of  Georgia.  In  due  time  an  elaborate  report  was  submitted. 
It  set  forth  that  60,294  persons  were  in  the  employ  of  the 
Government;  that  together  with  the  pensioners  this  meant 
more  than  100,000  dependent  on  the  Treasury.  Implying 
that  these  constituted  a  federal  machine,  Calhoun  added  all 
engaged  in  business  who  .wished  to  furnish  supplies  as  part 
of  the  organization,  influenced  by  patronage.  Worse  —  there 
were  thousands  who  wished  to  get  upon  the  pay-roll  who 
would  willingly  play  the  part  of  pliant  tools  to  curry  favor 
with  Executive  power.  And  how  was  this  to  be  remedied? 
Since  one  of  the  causes  contributing  to  the  enlargement  of 
the  President's  patronage  was  the  increase  in  governmental 
expenditure,  the  statesmanlike  thing  to  do  would  be  to  reduce 
the  revenue.  A  great  amount  of  public  land  had  been  thrown 
upon  the  market,  calling  for  an  army  of  receivers,  registers, 
and  surveyors  —  all  of  whom  were  tools  of  Jackson.  The 
Jacksonian  policy  of  removing  men  from  office  to  make  way 
for  henchmen  had  reduced  the  efficiency  of  the  public  serv 
ice  by  making  reappointments  dependent  on  something  other 
than  faithful  service.  This,  by  making  the  officials  dependent 
upon  the  President,  tended  to  make  them  all  subservient  to 
his" will,  and  little  better  than  his  slaves.  More:  the  power 
assumed  by  the  President  to  select  the  banks  for  the  public 
deposits  made  them  a  part  of  the  presidential  machine.  If 
the  public  revenue  could  be  reduced,  and  the  Government 
thus  starved,  many  would  be  forced  from  the  public  crib, 
but  unhappily  this  could  not  be  done.  He  proposed,  there 
fore,  a  constitutional  amendment  permitting  the  annual  dis 
tribution  of  the  surplus  till  1843  by  a  division  of  it  into  as 


384    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

many  shares  as  there  were  Senators  and  Representatives, 
with  ten  shares  for  each  Territory  and  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia.  And  in  addition  to  all  this,  he  would  enact  a  law 
to  regulate  the  deposits  of  public  money,  and  another  to 
repeal  that  part  of  the  Act  of  1820  which  limited  the  terms 
of  customs  officers. 

When  the  report  was  submitted  to  the  Senate,  Poindexter 
made  it  the  occasion  for  mournful  and  indignant  reflections 
upon  the  growing  tyranny  of  Jackson.  He  was  profoundly 
moved  by  the  revelations.  Surely  as  many  as  thirty  thousand 
extra  copies  of  the  report  should  be  published  for  distribution. 
"The  question  now  submitted  to  the  Nation,"  he  said,  "is 
whether  power  is  to  be  perpetuated  in  the  hands  of  him  who 
now  wields  it,  and  the  one  he  may  select  as  his  successor." 
It  was  most  unfortunate  that  the  people  would  not  awaken 
to  the  sinister  attacks  upon  their  liberties  and  institutions. 
The  thoughtful,  however,  could  not  but  see  the  trend. 

But  why  print  thirty  thousand  copies,  asked  King  of  Geor 
gia,  if  not  to  serve  a  party  purpose  at  the  expense  of  the  tax 
payers?  "What  a  spectacle  we  do  present  from  day  to  day!" 
he  exclaimed.  "The  Senate  has  been  a  week  making  war 
on  the  extras  of  the  Post-Office  Department.  We  are  now  war 
ring  against  the  extravagance  of  the  Executive;  and  whilst 
brandishing  the  sword  in  one  hand  in  defense  of  the  public 
Treasury  against  the  ravages  of  the  Executive,  we  are,  with 
the  other,  slipping  it  into  our  own  pockets,  or  scattering  it 
in  profuse  and  wasteful  extravagance." 

The  Senate  compromised  on  ten  thousand  copies,  and  a 
rather  dull  debate,  in  which  the  Bank  question  was  revived, 
resulted.  The  bills  proposed  by  the  Whig  committee  passed 
the  Whig  Senate  to  be  promptly  rejected  in  the  Democratic 
House.  These  measures  merely  served  as  pegs  on  which  to 
hang  further  denunciations  of  Jackson  and  his  policies. 

And  the  Democrats  countered  with  an  enthusiastic  ban 
quet  in  celebration  of  the  wiping-out  of  the  national  debt  for 


POLITICAL  HYDROPHOBIA  385 

the  first  time  in  history.  This  had  been  one  of  Jackson's 
ambitions  —  a  consummation  Clay  had  determined  should 
not  come  before  the  presidential  election  of  1832.  But  it 
could  not  be  prevented;  and  while  the  Whigs  were  expanding 
on  extravagance  and  the  crowded  public  crib,  the  Jacksoni- 
ans  were  pointing  to  the  extinguishment  of  the  public  debt 
as  an  answer  to  the  attacks.  Benton,  who  presided  as  toast- 
master  at  the  banquet,  was  in  flamboyant  mood. 

"The  national  debt  is  paid,"  he  said.  "This  month  of 
January,  1835,  in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  the  Republic,  An 
drew  Jackson  being  President,  the  national  debt  is  paid,  and 
the  apparition,  so  long  unseen  on  earth  —  a  great  nation 
without  a  national  debt  —  stands  revealed  to  the  astonished 
vision  of  a  wondering  world.  Gentlemen,  my  heart  is  in  this 
double  celebration,  and  I  offer  you  a  sentiment,  which,  com 
ing  directly  from  my  own  bosom,  will  find  its  response  in 
yours :  President  Jackson :  may  the  evening  of  his  days  be  as 
tranquil  and  as  happy  for  himself  as  their  meridian  has  been 
resplendent,  glorious,  and  beneficent  for  his  country." 

Such  was  the  partisan  madness  of  this  short  session  that 
a  resolution,  offered  and  urged  by  Preston,  the  Whig,  for  the 
purchase  of  some  pictures  for  "the  President's  house,"  was 
promptly  voted  down,  and  Preston's  efforts  to  have  the  vote 
reconsidered  were  unavailing.  It  was  into  this  madhouse  of 
partisan  rancor  that  the  French  crisis,  threatening  war,  in 
volving  the  world  prestige  of  the  Republic,  had  been  thrown 
by  Jackson;  and  we  shall  now  note  how  nearly  partisanship 
came  to  compromising  and  weakening  the  Nation  in  the  face 
of  a  foreign  antagonist. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS 

l 
most  important  battle  of  the  short  session  of  1834-35 

was  waged  over  Jackson's  determination  to  compel  France 
to  observe  her  obligations  under  the  treaty  signed  in  Paris 
and  Washington  in  July,  1831.  After  futile  efforts  by  the 
four  preceding  Administrations  to  bring  France  to  the  pay 
ment  of  an  indemnity  for  losses  to  American  vessels  during 
the  Napoleonic  wars,  Jackson  succeeded  in  negotiating  a 
treaty  in  which  France  stipulated  to  pay  the  United  States 
mve  millions  in  six  annual  installments,  and  we  agreed  to  the 
Deduction  of  duties  on  French  wines.  We  immediately  con 
formed  to  our  agreement,  but  the  French  manifested  no  such 
respect  for  their  obligations.  Several  sessions  of  the  French 
Chamber  failed  to  make  appropriations  for  the  payments, 
notwithstanding  the  earnest  remonstrances  of  Washington. 
Thoroughly  vexed  at  the  contemptuous  indifference  of  Paris, 
Jackson  withdrew  Livingston  from  the  State  Department, 
and  sent  him  to  the  French  Court  to  insist  upon  the  discharge 
of  the  treaty  obligations^Before  the  crisis  came,  he  had 
summoned  to  his  side  asrSecretary  of  State  the  courtly  and 
able  John  Forsyth,  concerning  whom  the  American  people 
know  all  too  little.  In  view  of  the  tendency  to  picture  the 
Jackson  of  the  French  crisis  as  a  bull  in  a  china  shop,  it  is 
worth  while  to  consider  the  characters  of  the  men  who  were, 
at  this  time,  his  advisers  in  foreign  affairs.  The  character 
of  Livingston  has  been  described. 

In  the  Washington  of  the  Thirties  no  public  man  was  more 
generally  respected  and  admired  for  ability  and  elegance  of 
manner  than  the  new  Secretary  of  State.  This  courtliness 


JOHN  FORSYTH 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    387 

of  demeanor  was  an  inheritance  from  his  French  ancestors.1 
In  person  he  was  notably  handsome,  well  built,  with  classi 
cal  features;  and  his  manners  were  those  of  the  drawing-room 
and  the  Court.  One  who  knew  him  has  written  that  "in  the 
times  of  Louis  XIV  he  would  have  rivaled  the  most  cele 
brated  courtier;  and  under  the  dynasty  of  Napoleon  he  would 
have  won  the  baton  of  France."  2  Another  has  described  him 
as  "Lord  Chesterfield,  minus  his  powdered  wig  and  knee 
buckles,"  and  as  "all  duke  and  all  democrat."  3  Even-tem 
pered,  seldom  giving  way  to  passion,  rich  in  a  sense  of  humor, 
he  was  one  of  the  few  statesmen  of  his  time  who  could  find  an 
equal  welcome  in  the  drawing-rooms  of  Whigs  or  Democrats. 
He  was  intensely  social,  and  prone  to  fritter  away  valuable 
time  in  polite  conversation  with  the  pretty  women  of  the 
capital,  albeit  a  perfect  husband,  ardently  devoted  to  the 
accomplished  daughter  of  Dr.  Josiah  Meigs,  whom  he  had 
married.4  Cultivated,  polished,  graceful,  he  was  the  perfect 
gentleman  and  conversationalist. 

As  an  orator,  he  was  one  of  the  most  consummate  of  his 
time,  singularly  free  from  the  then  prevailing  vice  of  tearing  a 
passion  to  tatters.  With  a  glance  of  the  eye,  a  movement  of 
the  finger,  a  mild  gesture  of  the  hand,  he  could  convey  subtle 
meaning,  and  in  his  expressions  of  contempt  he  required 
nothing  more  than  a  twitch  of  the  Roman  nose  or  a  scornful 
curl  of  the  lip.5  His  voice,  rich  and  musical,  was  as  carefully 
trained  as  that  of  a  prima  donna.  One  writer  compared  it  to 
a  trumpet,  "clear  and  piercing  in  its  tones,  and  yet  as  soft 
as  an  organ."  6  Another,  referring  to  "the  constant  stream  of 
pure  vocalization,'  described  it  as  "clear  and  resonant,  al- 

1  Forsyih  of  Nydie,  by  Forsyth  de  Fronsac. 

2  J.  F.  H.  Claiborne,  in  The  Cabinet:  Past  and  Present. 

3  Knight's  Reminiscences  of  Famous  Georgians. 

4  In  a  letter  written  Mrs.  Forsyth  on  board  the  U.S.S.  Hornet  bearing  him  to  the 
Court  of  Spain,  now  in  possession  of  Waddy  Wood,  a  descendant,  Washington,  D.C., 
the  beautiful  relations  of  the  Forsyths  are  impressively  disclosed. 

5  Miller's  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia.  6  Ibid.    • 


388    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

ways  pleasant  to  the  ear,  and  perfectly  modulated."  *  A  con 
temporary  writer  for  the  "Boston  Post"  recorded  that  "the 
rhythmic  accents  of  his  voice  suggested  the  musical  notes  of 
the  ^Eolian  harp."  2 

By  the  common  verdict  of  all  contemporaries  he  was  the 
most  powerful  debater  of  his  day,  and  as  the  floor  leader  in 
the  Senate,  he  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  Administration 
before  entering  the  Cabinet.  A  competent  critic  wrote  that 
"as  an  impromptu  debater  to  bring  on  an  action  or  to  cover 
a  retreat,  he  never  had  a  superior";  was  "acute,  full  of  re 
sources,  and  ever  prompt  —  impetuous  as  Murat  in  charge, 
adroit  as  Soult  when  flanked  and  outnumbered,"  "haughty 
in  the  presence  of  enemies,  and  affable  and  winning  among 
friends."  3  Another  thought  him  as  adroit  a  debater  as  ever 
lived  —  "the  Ajax  Telamon  of  his  party."  4  When  the  fight 
was  made  against  the  confirmation  of  Van  Buren,  the  Admin 
istration  rested  its  case  against  the  attacks  of  Clay  and  Web 
ster  on  his  presentation.  In  the  campaign  of  1832,  it  sum 
moned  him  to  make  the  one  speech  upon  the  tariff,  and  then 
dismissed  the  topic  definitely.  When,  at  a  critical  moment 
in  the  Nullification  movement,  Georgia  was  about  to  be 
swept  into  the  fallacy  under  the  leadership  of  Berrien,  in  a 
convention  called  specifically  for  that  purpose,  it  was  Forsyth 
who  was  dispatched  to  take  charge  of  the  Administration 
forces,  and,  under  his  brilliant  management,  the  Nullifiers 
were  defeated  in  the  presence  of  Chancellor  Harper,  who  had 
been  summoned  from  South  Carolina  to  witness  the  triumph 
of  the  sinister  doctrine.5  During  the  panic  session,  it  was 
upon  his  sarcasm  that  the  Jacksonians  largely  relied  to  mini 
mize  the  effect  of  the  exaggerated  speeches  and  the  lugu 
brious  petitions  and  memorials. 

1  Northern's  Men  of  Mark  in  Georgia. 

2  Knight's  Reminiscences  of  Famous  Georgians. 

3  Claiborne's  The  Cabinet:  Past  and  Present. 

4  Sparks,  Memories  of  Fifty  Years. 

6  See  Foote's  Casket  of  Reminiscences;  Miller's  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia;  and 
Northern's  Men  of  Mark  in  Georgia. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    389 

And  yet,  ardent  though  he  was  in  his  partisanship,  he  com 
manded  the  affectionate  esteem  of  his  opponents  by  his  man 
liness  and  fairness.  When  the  "bargain"  charge  was  made 
against  Clay,  it  was  Forsyth  who  demanded  an  investigation 
in  the  interest  of  justice,  thereby  incurring  the  displeasure  of 
many  of  his  associates.  Even  Adams  found  him  fair. 

In  many  respects  he  fails  to  fit  in  with  the  Jacksonian  pic 
ture.  He  was  temperamentally  an  aristocrat,  like  Livingston, 
rather  cynical  toward  the  masses,  and  not  at  all  enamoured  of 
the  Kitchen  Cabinet.  The  letter  from  his  son-in-law  during 
the  first  Cabinet  dissensions,  expressing  the  hope  that  Jack 
son  would  "send  off  Lewis  and  Kendall,"  was  doubtless  writ 
ten  in  the  confidence  that  the  sentiment  would  meet  with 
the  approval  of  the  recipient.1  But  Forsyth  was  too  much 
the  man  of  the  world  to  quarrel  over  details  or  personalities, 
and  in  the  company  of  Van  Buren  and  Livingston,  he  was 
able  to  forget  the  Kendalls  and  the  Blairs. 

When  he  entered  the  Cabinet,  he  assumed  tasks  that  were 
to  his  taste.  He  prided  himself  particularly  upon  his  diplo 
macy,  and  his  experience  as  Minister  to  Madrid  to  negotiate 
the  purchase  of  Florida  justified  his  confidence.  This  position 
called  for  great  address,  finesse,  a  knowledge  of  human  na 
ture,  and  infinite  patience,  persuasiveness,  and  tact.  The 
cunning  Ferdinand,  who  needed  the  money,  but  was  loath 
to  part  with  his  possession,  was  inclined  to  haggle,  and,  while 
history  has  given  credit  for  the  success  of  the  negotiations 
to  the  instructions  of  Adams,  it  was  the  ingratiating  quali 
ties  of  Forsyth  that  finally  overcame  the  scruples  of  the  King. 

That  a  President  so  impetuous  as  Jackson  should  have 
been  served  in  foreign  affairs  by  men  of  the  conservatism  and 
caution  of  Van  Buren,  Livingston,  and  Forsyth  seems  provi 
dential.  One  day,  after  dinner,  Jackson  sat  before  the  fire  in 
the  White  House  smoking  his  pipe  and  outlining  plans  for 

1  This  letter  from  Arthur  Schaaf  to  Forsyth,  written  from  Georgetown,  June  25, 
1831,  is  in  possession  of  Waddy  Wood,  Washington,  D.C. 


S90    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

radical  action  on  the  Oregon  boundary  dispute  that  would 
have  made  war  inevitable.  Forsyth,  to  whom  he  was  speak 
ing,  observing  his  dangerous  mood,  simulated  sympathy  with 
his  indignation.  Then  he  began  with  quiet  suggestions. 
Perhaps  Jackson's  plan  would  seem  to  be  a  plan  to  force  a 
fight.  It  might  put  the  country  in  the  wrong  light.  Then, 
too,  he  recalled  that  the  offensive  action  proposed  in  Par 
liament  had  been  dropped  on  the  request  of  the  British  Min 
ister  for  Foreign  Affairs.  Possibly  the  London  Government 
did  not  sympathize  with  the  faction  seeking  trouble.  Again, 
a  year's  notice  would  have  to  be  given,  preliminary  to  any 
action  by  the  United  States,  and  Jackson's  Administration 
would  then  be  drawing  to  a  close.  Possibly  it  might  be  best 
to  do  nothing.  The  President  sat  a  few  moments  looking 
into  the  fire,  and  then,  slowly  refilling  and  lighting  his  pipe, 
he  concluded-  "I  reckon  you're  right,  Forsyth;  at  least 
you're  right  now." 

Such  was  the  man  who,  with  the  assistance  of  Edward 
Livingston,  was  to  grapple  with  the  French  crisis. 


.  ... 

presenting  his  credentials,  Livingston  was  warmly  re 
ceived  by  Louis  Philippe,  and  assured  that  the  necessary  laws 
for  the  immediate  execution  of  the  treaty  would  be  passed 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Chamber  Jr  The  French  Govern 
ment  then  understood  the  certain  effect  on  American  public 
opinion  of  a  contemptuous  treatment  of  its  obligations. 
The  peculiar  action  of  the  Chamber  had  been  the  subject 
of  a  conversation  between  the  Due  de  Broglie  and  James 
Buchanan,  then  in  Paris,  en  route  from  his  mission  to  St. 
Petersburg  and  this  had  been  stressed.2  Thanks  to  the  clever 
Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Russian  Minister  to  France,  Buchanan 
had  been  able  to  convey  to  Jackson  an  accurate  idea  of  the 

1  Livingston  to  McLane,  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  130. 

2  Buchanan's  diary.  Sept.  12,  1833,  Buchanan's  Works,  n,  388. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    391 

difficulties  —  the  weakness  of  the  King's  Government  and 
the  hostility  and  cupidity  of  Dupin,  the  President  of  the 
Chamber.1  Nor  did  it  take  Livingston  long  to  discover  the 
secret  of  the  apathy  of  the  King  and  his  Ministers.  Louis's 
throne  was  a  keg  of  dynamite,  and  he  ruled  in  constant 
fear  of  the  Deputies.  He  hoped  to  postpone  an  unpleasant 
duty  until  an  auspicious  moment.  The  treaty  was  described 
by  the  enemies  of  the  dynasty  as  a  bad  bargain;  the  sup 
porters  of  the  old  regime  hated  America  because  of  the  Rev 
olution,  and  the  Republicans  hated  the  King  because  he  was 
King.  With  Jackson  manifesting  more  and  more  irritation, 
Livingston  importuned  the  King,  remonstrated  with  the 
Ministers,  and  labored  with  the  members  of  the  Chamber, 
and  in  all  this  he  had  the  active  cooperation  of  Lafayette. 
But  after  six  months  of  conferences,  the  Chamber  took  ad- 
verpe  action. 

^The  Government  was  seriously  concerned.  The  King  ex 
pressed  his  deep  regret,  and  a  French  war  vessel  was  sent  to 
America  with  instructions  to  Serurier  the  French  Minister, 
to  assure  Jackson  that,  as  soon  after  the  elections  as  the 
charter  would  permit,  the  Chamber  would  be  summoned,  the 
appropriation  would  be  pressed,  and  the  President  informed 
of  the  result  in  time  for  him  to  communicate  the  facts  to  the 
Congress  at  the  beginning  of  the  session  of  December,  1834. 
This  held  Jackson's  impatience  in  check.  But  the  elections 
passed,  the  Chamber  convened,  nothing  was  done,  and  the  ,/ 
next  session  would  not  convene  until  three  weeks  after  tyf 
Congress  would  meet. 

As  the  congressional  session  approached,  Livingston  in 
formed  Forsyth  that  only  a  manifestation  of  strong  national 
feeling  in  America  would  force  action  in  Paris.  "This  is  not 
a  mere  conjecture,"  he  wrote.  "I  know  the  fact."  And  he  re 
iterated  that  the  moderate  tone  of  the  President's  Messages 
had  convinced  the  French  politicians  that  he  would  not  be 

1  Buchanan's  Works,  n,  290-91. 


392    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

supported  in  vigorous  measures,  and  closed  with  the  sig 
nificant  comment  that  "from  all  this  you  may  imagine  the 
anxiety  I  shall  feel  for  the  arrival  of  the  President's  Mes 
sage."  * 

^The  indignation  of  Jackson  over  this  trifling,  intensified  by 
the  conviction  that  France  would  not  have  dared  thus  in  the 
case  of  a  European  Power,  can  be  imagined.  Many  of  his 
friends  who  lived  in  constant  terror  of  his  temper  were  be 
side  themselves  at  the  prospect.2  But  he  had  put  his  hand 
to  the  plough,  and  it  was  unlike  him  to  turn  back/ In  the 
preparation  of  his  Message  a  futile  effort  had  been  made  to 
persuade  him  to  the  employment  of  less  emphatic  language, 
but  the  Cabinet  members  thought  to  change  slightly  the 
phrasing  without  his  knowledge.  Forsyth,  who  was  a  master^ 
in  diplomatic  wording,  made  slight  changes  in  a  paragraph^ 
and  the  Message  was  sent  to  the  "Globe"  to  be  put  in  type. 
When  the  proof  reached  the  White  House,  John  C.  Rives 3 
was  with  Jackson,  and  Donelson,  a  party  to  the  plan  to  mod 
erate,  began  to  read  as  Jackson,  with  his  pipe  in  his  mouth, 
paced  the  floor.  All  went  well  until  the  altered  paragraph 
was  reached,  and  Donelson  tried  so  to  slur  his  reading  that 
the  change  would  not  be  noticed.  Vain  hope!  Jackson 
stopped  short. 

"Read  that  again,  sir." 

This  time  the  secretary  read  distinctly,  and  Jackson,  the 
lion  in  him  thoroughly  aroused,  thundered: 

"That,  sir,  is  not  my  language;  it  has  been  changed,  and 
I  will  have  no  other  expression  of  my  own  meaning  than 
my  own  words." 

And  then  and  there  he  rewrote  the  paragraph,  making  it 
stronger  than  originally.  Then,  placing  it  in  the  hands  of 
Rives,  he  forbade  him  to  print  anything  else  "at  his  peril." 4 

1  Livingston  to  Forsyth,  Messages  and  Papers,  HI,  130. 

2  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie,  163. 

8  Associated  with  Blair  in  the  publication  of  the  Globe. 
4  Wise's  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  145-46. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    393 

Reading  the  Message  to-day  it  seems  moderate  enough  in 
tone,  without  a  trace  of  bluster,  and,  compared  with  Cleve 
land's  Venezuela  Message,  positively  mild.  The  greater  part 
is  a  calm,  accurate,  dispassionate  recital  of  the  facts,  but  it 
closed  with  the  request  for  authority  for  making  reprisals 
on  French  property  should  the  next  session  of  the  Chamber 
fail  to  make  the  required  appropriation.  "Such  a  measure," 
he  said,  "ought  not  to  be  considered  by  France  as  a  menace. 
Her  pride  and  power  are  too  well  known  to  expect  anything 
from  her  fears,  and  preclude  the  necessity  of  a  declaration 
that  nothing  partaking  of  the  character  of  intimidation  is 
intended  by  us." 

The  tone  of  the  Message,  appealing  to  the  pride  and  self- 
respect  of  the  people,  was  embarrassing  to  the  Whigs,  who 
for  a  time  hesitated  as  to  their  course.  To  support  Jackson 
might  only  tend  to  enhance  his  popularity,  already  too  great 
to  suit;  to  attack  his  course  would  certainly  be  disadvanta 
geous  to  the  country  in  an  international  controversy.1  Hone, 
the  Whig  diarist,  however,  was  quite  sure  that  the  Message 
"  will  weaken  our  cause  with  the  lookers  on  in  other  nations."  2 
A  month  later  he  was  still  depressed  because  of  Jackson's 
"unnecessary  threats,"  but,  being  a  praying  Whig,  he  had 
hopes  that  Congress  would  still  save  the  country.3  Justice 
Joseph  Story  was  quite  as  mournful.  "The  President,"  he 
wrote,  "is  exceedingly  warm  for  war  with  France  if  he  could 
get  Congress  to  back  him.  The  Senate,  in  these  days  our  sole 
security,  it  is  well  known,  would  steadily  resist  him."  4 

Meanwhile,  with  the  Whigs  of  the  Senate  laying  their  plans 
to  repudiate  the  President's  position  in  the  face  of  a  foreign 
adversary,  events  were  moving  in  France.  The  Chambef 
met  in  the  midst  of  excitement,  the  Ministry  successfully 
putting  their  popularity  to  the  test  of  a  vote  of  confidence. 

1  Lewis  to  Hamilton,  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  283. 

2  Hone's  Diary,  Dec.  3,  1834.  *  Ibid.,  Jan.  1,  1835. 
4  Letter  to  Judge  May,  Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  n,  192. 


394    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Livingston  was  encouraged.1  But  a  very  little  later  his  op 
timism  vanished,  and  he  awaited  hopefully  the  arrival  of  the 
Presidential  Message.2  Thus  concerned  over  the  tone  of  the 
Message,  he  arranged  for  couriers  to  hurry  it  to  him  on  its 
arrival  at  Havre.  It  reached  Paris  in  an  American  newspaper 
at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  excitement  was  intense. 
Even  Livingston  was  momentarily  stunned.  "The  feeling," 
he  wrote  Forsyth,  "is  fostered  by  the  language  of  our  Op 
position  papers,  particularly  by  the  *  Intelligencer'  and  the 
'New  York  Courier,'  extracts  from  which  have  been  sent  on 
by  Americans,  declaring  them  to  be  the  sentiments  of  the 
majority  of  the  people.  These,  as  you  will  see,  are  translated 
and  republished  here,  with  such  comments  as  they  might 
have  been  expected  and  undoubtedly  were  intended  to  pro 
duce,  and  if  hostilities  should  take  place  between  the  two 
nations  those  persons  may  flatter  themselves  with  having  the 
credit  of  a  large  share  in  producing  them."  He  felt,  however, 
that  "the  energetic  language  of  the  Message"  would  "have 
a  good  effect."  And  contrary  to  the  fear  of  Hone  that  it 
would  degrade  us  in  the  eyes  of  the  onlookers,  he  found  that 
"it  has  certainly  raised  us  in  the  estimation  of  other  Powers 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  demeanor  of  their  representatives 
here."  He  was  sure  that  "as  soon  as  the  excitement  subsides 
it  will  operate  favorably  on  the  counsels  of  France."  Already 
"some  of  the  papers  have  begun  to  change  their  tone."  As 
soon  as  the  Message  was  known,  "the  funds  experienced  a 
considerable  fall,  and  insurance  rose."  3 

In  compliance  with  the  request  of  Comte  de  Rigny,  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  Livingston  personally  delivered 
to  him  a  copy  of  the  Message,  and  stressed  the  point  that, 
under  our  governmental  form,  the  Message  was  a  consulta 
tion  between  departments  of  our  Government,  and  was  not 
directed  to  France.  Then  shifting  to  the  offensive  he  added 

1  Livingston  to  Forsyth,  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  1 32. 

2  Ibid.  3  Ibid.,  135-36. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    395 

that  it  was  most  unfortunate,  in  view  of  Serurier's  promise, 
that  there  had  not  been  an  earlier  call  of  the  Chamber.  De 
Rigny  seemed  to  attach  the  most  serious  importance  to  the 
intimation  of  bad  faith,  but  the  interview  was  friendly.  That 
evening,  at  the  Austrian  Minister's,  Livingston  found  him  all 
suavity;  and  the  next  night  a  curt  note  from  him  announced 
the  withdrawal  of  Serurier  from  Washington,  and  a  readiness 
to  give  the  American  diplomat  his  passports  on  application ! l 
He  made  much  of  Jackson's  comments  on  the  failure  to  con 
vene  the  Chamber  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Chamber 
was  then  actually  assembled  in  virtue  of  a  royal  ordinance. 
This,  while  true,  could  not  have  been  known  to  Jackson  in 
those  days  of  slow  communication.  He  only  knew  the  orig 
inal  purpose.  But  it  pleased  de  Rigny  to  assume  an  unex- 
plairiable  offense,  and  to  announce  that  "His  Majesty  has 
considered  it  due  his  own  dignity  no  longer  to  leave  his  Min 
ister  exposed  to  hear  language  so  offensive  to  France."  2  Re 
sisting  an  impulse  to  demand  his  passports,  lest  such  action 
seem  unnecessarily  provocative,  Livingston  replied  in  a  dig 
nified  note  that  unless  de  Rigny  *s  letter  was  intended  as  a  dis 
missal,  he  would  await  instructions  from  his  own  Government. 

in 

MEANWHILE  the  Whigs  were  planning  to  make  political 
capital  out  of  the  crisis.  The  "Intelligencer,"  the  organ  of 
the  Senate  Whigs,  had  assumed  an  attitude  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  given  much  comfort  to  the  French  enemies  of  the 
treaty.  "We  trust,"  it  said,  "that  it  will  be  universally  un 
derstood,  not  only  at  home,  but  everywhere  abroad,  that  the 
recommendation  of  the  President  is  his  own  act  only,  and  is 
not  likely  ...  to  receive  the  approbation  of  the  Congress  or 
the  people  of  the  United  States."  And  Blair,  in  the  "  Globe," 
hotly  replied  that  "if  she  [France]  shall  shed  American  blood 

1  Livingston  to  Forsyth,  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  137-38. 

2  De  Rigny  to  Livingston,  ibid.,  138-39. 


396    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

in  this  controversy,  and  push  her  injustice  to  actual  war,  the 
responsibility  for  all  the  destruction  of  human  lives  .  .  .  will 
justly  rest  upon  the  heads  of  the  editors  of  the  'National 
Intelligencer.'"  1  The  "National  Gazette,"  another  Oppo 
sition  paper,  compromised  with  the  thought  that  Jackson 
"did  well  to  present  the  subject  to  Congress  .  .  .  though  we 
would  earnestly  dissuade  Congress  from  giving  him  a  dis 
cretion  so  important  as  that  of  reprisals."  Which,  inter 
preted  by  Blair,  meant  that  the  mercantile  class  and  bankers 
were  interested  in  French  claims,  and  it  would  be  well  to 
enforce  them,  "but  if  the  national  rights  and  honor,  im 
plicated  in  a  refusal  to  execute  the  treaty,  should  be  vindi 
cated  by  President  Jackson,  it  would  add  renown  to  the  man 
whom  it  was  the  editors'  business  to  traduce."  2 

The  first  act  of  the  Whigs  was  to  pack  the  Foreign  Rela 
tions  Committee  of  the  Senate  with  the  President's  enemies, 
three  of  the  five,  Clay,  Mangum,  and  Sprague,  being  virulent 
foes.  "There  are  certainly  not  three  men  in  the  French 
Chamber,"  wrote  Blair,  "more  anxiously  bent  on  thwarting 
the  measures  of  General  Jackson's  Administration."  3  Into 
the  hands  of  these  was  delivered  that  portion  of  the  Message 
dealing  with  the  French  affair,  and  a  month  later  Clay  offered 
his  resolution  that  "it  is  inexpedient  at  this  time  "to  grant 
authority  to  the  President  to  make  reprisals.  In  presenting 
his  report,  Clay  made  the  startling  statement  that  if  France 
was  prudent  "she  will  wait  to  see  whether  the  Message  should 
be  seconded  by  the  Congress."  Thus,  in  the  face  of  a  pros 
pective  foreign  foe,  patently  in  the  wrong,  the  leader  of  the 
Whigs  attempted  to  create  the  impression  that  Jackson  stood 
alone.  This  was  the  cue  to  the  politicians.  The  Clay  report 
was  extravagantly  praised.  Poindexter,  in  ecstatic  mood, 
moved  that  twenty  thousand  copies  be  printed  for  circulation 
—  as  propaganda  to  isolate  the  President.  Calhoun  favored 
"the  largest  number."  The  report  had  delighted  him.  "War 

4    l  Washington  Globe,  Dec.  6.  1834.  2  Ibid.  3  Ibid.,  Dec.  17,  1834.   , 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    397 

was  at  all  times  to  be  avoided."  1  Only  two  Whigs  objected  to 
twenty  thousand  copies,  and  these  on  the  ground  that  the 
printing  of  so  many  would  require  four  months.2  Hill  de 
manded  the  yeas  and  nays,  and  by  a  party  vote  the  "largest 
number"  of  Clay's  campaign  document  was  ordered.  Thus, 
from  the  beginning,  the  divisions  in  the  Senate  on  an  inter 
national  crisis  were  along  party  lines. 

On  the  day  Livingston  received  the  curt  note  from  de 
Rigny,  Clay,  in  opening  the  discussion  of  his  resolution,  threw 
out  the  suggestion  twice  that  France  might  make  the  appro 
priation  conditional  on  an  "explanation"  from  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  He  felt  sure  that  France  would  under 
stand  that  Congress  did  not  share  the  President's  views.  The 
Democratic  members  of  the  committee,  in  a  minority  report, 
differed  from  the  majority  in  explaining  the  reason  for  finding 
it  "inexpedient"  to  grant  authority  —  the  fact  that  the 
Chamber  had  been  called  a  month  earlier  than  anticipated. 
The  only  vigorous  attack  on  the  majority  report,  and  the 
sole  unapologetic  American  speech,  was  that  of  Buchanan, 
who,  better  than  any  other  member  of  the  Senate,  under 
stood  the  conditions  in  Paris.  He  called  for  an  unqualified 
assertion  of  our  determination  to  demand  the  observance  of 
the  treaty.  "I  hope  I  may  be  mistaken,"  he  concluded,  "but 
I  believe  it  never  will  be  paid  before."  3  The  brief  debate, 
heard  by  the  fashion  of  the  capital  packed  in  the  galleries, 
was  conducted  with  decorum,  but  quite  discernible  beneath 
the  surface  one  may  read  the  party  feeling  which  even  an  in 
ternational  crisis  could  not  obliterate.  The  Clay  resolution 
was  adopted.  The  "National  Intelligencer,"  now  finding  its 
way  regularly  to  Paris,  expressed  the  hope  that  "with  this 
unquestionable  proof  of  the  pacific  temper  of  the  Senate  .  .  . 
it  will  now  be  understood  at  home  and  abroad  that  there  is 
no  morbid  appetite  for  war  among  the  grave  and  considerate 
portion  of  the  American  people." 

1  Cong.  Globe,  n,  95.  *  Leigh  and  Preston.  »  Cong.  Globe,  n.  125. 


398    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Several  weeks  were  to  intervene  before  the  House  took 
action.  Meanwhile  in  Paris,  Livingston,  in  seclusion,  pre 
pared  his  masterful  and  spirited  formal  reply  to  the  impudent 
note  of  the  French  Minister.  He  loftily  rebuked  him  for 
referring  to  the  President  as  "General  Jackson"  in  official 
language,  firmly  reiterated  and  proved  the  charge  of  broken 
faith  in  the  matter  of  the  Serurier  pledge,  and  pitilessly  ex 
posed  the  hypocrisy  of  the  complaint  that  Jackson  had  mis 
represented,  purposely,  regarding  the  time  of  the  calling  of 
the  Chamber.  Had  not  de  Rigny  himself  informed  him  that 
it  was  constitutionally  impossible  to  call  the  session  earlier 
when  protest  had  been  made  as  to  the  date?  And  yet  it  had 
been  called.  When  a  copy  of  this  note  reached  Forsyth, 
he  summoned  Van  Buren  and  the  two  repaired  to  the  White 
House,  where  it  was  read  and  warmly  approved.1  By  this 
time  Jackson  was  in  no  mood  to  compromise  or  conciliate. 
Forsyth  instructed  Livingston  that,  if  the  French  Chamber 
again  rejected  the  appropriation  bill,  a  frigate  was  to  be 
immediately  sent  to  convey  him  home.  Ten  days  after  these 
instructions  were  written,  Serurier  was  recalled,  and  Forsyth, 
in  refusing  an  audience,  coolly  informed  him  that  he  was 
"ready  to  receive  in  writing  any  communication  the  Minis 
ter  of  France  desires  to  have  made  to  the  Government  of  the 
United  States."  2 

Meanwhile  the  French  papers  reaching  the  United  States 
were  noisily  militant.  War-clouds  lowered.  James  A.  Ham 
ilton  tendered  his  services  to  Jackson  for  duty  "civil  or  mil 
itary,  at  home  or  abroad."  3  Major  Lewis,  gravely  con 
cerned  because  of  his  daughter's  marriage  to  M.  Pageot 
of  the  French  Legation,  hastened  to  reassure  Hamilton  with 
extracts  from  personal  letters  from  governmental  officials 
in  Paris  —  and  thus  threw  an  interesting  side-light  on  the 

1  Hunt's  Life  of  Livingston;  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  202-08. 

2  Notes  exchanged  between  Forsyth  and  Serurier,  Messages  and  Papers,  in, 
144-45. 

Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  283. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    399 

romance  and  tragedy  of  international  marriages,  for  these 
letters  had  been  translated,  for  the  benefit  of  Jackson,  in 
the  French  Legation  by  Madame  Pageot,  the  wife  of  the 
First  Secretary!  * 

IV 

UNDER  these  ominous  conditions,  with  offers  of  military 
service  pouring  into  the  White  House,  with  the  French  Min 
ister  on  the  ocean  en  route  to  Paris,  and  with  additional  let 
ters  in  the  diplomatic  duel  before  it,  the  House  of  Represent 
atives  began  its  discussion  of  the  crisis.  With  the  majority 
report  and  resolutions  declaring  against  further  negotiations 
and  in  favor  of  contingent  preparations,  the  House  was  imme 
diately  engaged  in  an  animated  and  acrimonious  discussion 
indicative  of  the  excitement  of  the  times.  Edward  Everett, 
the  pacifist  of  the  session,  offered  a  substitute  coupling  a 
declaration  of  adherence  to  the  treaty  with  a  request  for  the 
renewal  of  negotiations.  Adams,  in  ugly  temper,  threw  out 
the  hint  that  it  appeared  that  "the  supporters  of  the  Admin 
istration  were  the  only  ones  to  be  heard  upon  the  subject." 
With  some  feeling,  Cambreleng,  in  charge  for  the  Adminis 
tration,  assured  the  former  President  that  he  was  ready  to 
enter  upon  a  free  accommodation  of  differences  that  a  united 
front  might  be  presented  to  the  Nation's  adversary.  This 
little  storm  cleared  the  atmosphere,  and  on  the  next  day 
when  the  debate  began  in  earnest  it  was  wholesomely  free 
from  purely  partisan  rancor.  Then  it  was  that  Adams  ex 
plained  his  dissent  from  the  phrasing.  He  objected  to  the 
assertion  that  negotiations  should  be  discontinued.  "The 
only  alternative  compatible  with  the  honor  of  nations  is 
war,"  he  said.  If  a  continuance  of  the  negotiations  failed,  he 
was  ready  for  the  "hazard  of  war."  He  realized  that  "the 
interest  and  honor  of  the  Nation"  were  at  stake.  The  pledge 
of  France  had  been  given,  and  the  sole  question  was 

1  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  284. 


400    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

"whether  we  shall  suffer  the  nation  that  made  this  treaty  to 
violate  it."  We  could  not  afford  to  compromise  to  the  extent 
of  a  penny. 

"What  will  be  the  consequences,"  demanded  the  fiery  old 
man  eloquent,  "if  you  give  it  up?  Why,  every  nation  will 
consider  itself  at  liberty  to  sport  wi thrall  treaties  that  are 
made  with  us." 

And  then  Adams  startled  the  Democrats,  and  broke  with 
the  Whigs,  in  his  reference  to  Jackson.  "Whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  imprudence  of  that  recommendation,"  he  ex 
claimed,  "the  opinion  of  mankind  will  ever  be  that  it  was 
high-spirited  and  lofty,  and  such  as  became  the  individual 
from  whom  it  emanated.  I  say  it  now,  and  I  repeat,  that  it 
is  the  attitude  which  the  Chief  Magistrate  will  bear  before 
the  world,  and  before  mankind,  and  before  posterity."  1 

Quite  different  the  feeling  of  William  S.  Archer,  a  Virginia 
Whig,  who  looked  with  fear  and  trembling  to  a  contest  with 
France.  Think,  he  cried,  of  the  commercial  loss !  Why  sacri 
fice  this  with  so  little  involved?  "It  would  be  quixotic,  and 
even  romance  scarcely  presented  a  precedent,  unless  that  of 
Sir  Lucius  O'Trigger."  And  even  if  right,  why  take  the 
chance?  He  had  been  surprised  that  Adams  had  said  noth 
ing  about  fear. 

"No,"  shouted  Adams,  "the  gentleman's  whole  argument 
is  fear!" 

The  Virginian  closed  by  offering  a  resolution  "that  in  the 
just  expectation  that  the  Government  of  France  will  have 
made  provision  .  .  .  this  House  will  forbear  at  the  present 
time  to  adopt  any  measure  in  relation  to  that  subject."2 

With  flaming  indignation,  James  W.  Bouldin,  a  Virginia 
Democrat,  replied  to  Archer's  timorous  speech.  "The  gentle 
man  asks  if  we  would  really  go  to  war  for  five  million  dol 
lars,"  he  said.  "Will  a  man  fight  if  you  spit  in  his  face?  "  Al 
ready  the  French  Chamber  was  boasting  that  we  had  taken 

i  Cong.  Globe,  n,  30&-10.  2  Ibid.,  310-11. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    401 

the  like  from  others,  and  declaring  that  we  were  "a  money- 
making,  money-loving  people,  and  would  never  spend  a 
hundred  million  to  obtain  five."  And,  continued  Bouldin,  "  I 
have  heard  as  much  praise  of  foreign  nations  as  I  want  to 
hear.  ...  All  I  want  to  hear  at  this  time  is  whether  we  intend 
to  hold  upon  the  treaty  or  give  it  up  entirely."  1 

Cambreleng,  aroused  by  the  sordid  character  of  the  Archer 
appeal,  sharply  warned  that  "the  honor  and  welfare  of  the 
Nation  is  involved,  and  the  measure  will  no  longer  be  sacri 
ficed  to  gratify  the  spirit  of  party."  2  To  which  Tristam 
Burges,  a  Rhode  Island  Whig,  responded  with  the  amazing 
assertion  that  "France  would  be  cowardly  indeed  if  she 
should  pay  the  money  under  such  circumstances."  3 

Edward  Everett  followed  with  a  typical  pacifist  appeal  for 
peace,  but  it  was  reserved  for  the  eloquent  Horace  Binney 
to  present  the  most  novel  reasons  for  America's  consent  to 
her  humiliation.  In  the  President's  Message  he  had  found 
"the  President's  design  .  .  .  impossible  to  fathom."  4  The 
action  of  the  French  Chamber  was  none  of  our  business.  In 
the  meantime  we  should  not  close  the  door  on  negotiations. 
The  French  Republicans  were  using  the  treaty  as  a  club 
upon  the  monarchy,  and  should  this  country  "strengthen 
the  hands  of  a  constitutional  monarchy  ?  "  5 

Then  Adams,  in  no  conciliatory  temper,  rose  again. 
"Whence  come  these  compliments  to  France?"  he  asked. 
"Are  they  elicited  by  her  virtues?  Is  it  because  she  has  re 
fused  the  payment .  .  .  due  us?  Is  it  because  she  has  violated 
her  plighted  faith?  Is  it  from  the  style  of  the  dignified  de 
bates  . .  .  where  we  are  characterized  as  a  nation  of  mercena 
ries —  where  the  basest  and  meanest  of  motives  are  attrib 
uted  to  the  American  people  —  those  of  sordid  avarice, 
speculation,  and  gain?.  .  .  Is  it  on  this  that  the  gentleman 
from  Virginia  bases  his  'just  expectations'?"  And,  turning 

1  Cong,  Globe,  u,  312.  *  Ibid.,  3112-13.  »  Ibid.,  313. 

4  Binney's  Diary;  Life  of  Binney,  126.  ^6  Cong.  Globe,  n,  320. 


402    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

to  Everett:  "We  have  heard  much  of  war  and  its  horrors. 
No  man  can  entertain  a  greater  abhorrence  of  war  than  I. 
I  would  do  anything  but  sacrifice  honor  and  independence 
to  avoid  it.  But  when  I  hear  it  advanced  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  national  honor,  that  it  is  merely  ideal,  I  must 
take  leave  to  say  that  I  do  not  subscribe  to  such  a  doctrine."  l 

But  the  next  speaker,  Benjamin  Hardin,  though  hailing 
from  the  fighting  State  of  Kentucky,  was  not  impressed. 
Randolph  had  compared  his  wit  to  "a  coarse  kitchen  butcher 
knife  whetted  upon  a  brickbat,"  2  but  he  now  purred  gently 
to  the  harsh  strokes  of  the  French  Chamber.  "What  would 
we  go  to  war  for?"  he  demanded.  "The  paltry  sum  of  five 
million  dollars!"  In  one  year  war  would  "sweep  from  the 
ocean  at  least  fifty  millions  of  our  commerce."  And  where 
would  the  expense  fall?  "Upon  the  hard-working  and  in 
dustrious  farmer."  3 

The  outcome  was  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  which  was  a 
compromise  between  that  of  the  committee  and  the  ideas  of 
Adams,  insisting  on  the  maintenance  of  the  treaty  and  in  fa 
vor  of  preparations.  This  was  adopted  at  a  night  session  on 
the  2d  of  March,  and  the  session  was  then  thought  to  expire 
at  midnight  on  March  3d. 

V 

AN  occurrence  on  the  last  day  of  the  session,  due  to  partisan 
madness,  left  the  Republic  all  but  naked  to  its  prospective 
foe.  Early  in  the  evening,  during  the  consideration  of  the 
Fortifications  Bill,  an  amendment  was  offered  in  the  House, 
appropriating  three  millions  to  be  used  at  the  discretion  of 
the  President  for  emergency  work  in  the  event  France  should 
strike  during  the  congressional  recess.  It  met  with  no  oppo 
sition  in  the  House,  but  the  moment  it  reached  the  Senate  it 

1  Cong.  Globe,  n,  322. 

2  General  Linder's  Early  Bench  and  Bar  of  Illinois,  48. 
»  Cong.  Globe,  n,  322. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    403 

was  pounced  upon  by  the  Whig  leaders  as  another  proof  of 
Jackson's  itch  for  power.  Webster,  assuming  the  leadership 
in  the  sorry  business,  proposed  instantly  to  dispose  of  the 
amendment  with  a  motion  to  "adhere"  to  the  Senate  meas 
ure.  This  harsh,  unusual  course  was  intended  as  a  notice 
that  the  Senate  would  not  even  meet  the  House  in  conference 
upon  the  subject. 

Then  followed  a  most  amazing  spectacle,  with  the  Whigs 
assailing  Jackson  and  his  alleged  contempt  for  the  Consti 
tution  and  determination  to  declare  war  without  an  Act  of 
Congress.  Senator  Buchanan,  protesting  against  the  Web 
ster  motion,  pointed  out  the  necessity  for  the  appropriation 
—  the  possibility  of  a  blow  from  France  during  the  recess, 
the  frankly  expressed  apprehension  of  Livingston.  "In  that 
event,"  he  continued,  "what  will  be  our  condition?  Our  sea- 
coast  from  Georgia  to  Maine  will  be  exposed  to  the  incursions 
of  the  enemy;  our  cities  may  be  plundered  and  burnt;  the 
national  character  may  be  disgraced;  and  all  this  whilst  we 
have  an  overflowing  Treasury."  1 

King  of  Alabama  earnestly  pleaded  with  Webster  to  with 
draw  the  harsh  motion.  "In  what  way,"  he  asked,  "does  it 
violate  the  Constitution?  Does  it  give  the  President  the 
power  to  declare  war?  This  power  belongs  to  Congress 
alone,  nor  does  the  bill  in  the  slightest  degree  impair  it. 
Does  it  authorize  the  raising  of  armies?  No,  not  one  man 
may  be  enlisted  beyond  the  number  required  to  fill  up  the 
ranks  of  your  little  army." 

But  Webster  was  deaf  to  the  appeal.  The  "autocrat"  and 
"  tyrant "  was  again  making  an  onslaught  on  the  Constitution, 
and  he  would  have  none  of  it.  And  by  a  strict  party  vote,  for 
White  of  Tennessee  had  by  now  definitely  joined  the  Oppo 
sition,  the  motion  to  adhere  was  adopted. 

When  this  surprising  action  reached  the  House,  it  swal 
lowed  its  pride  and  asked  for  a  conference.  The  conferees 
1  Buchanan's  Works,  11,  439-41. 


404    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

met  and  remained  in  deadlock  until  midnight.  Forsyth  and 
Van  Buren  were  at  the  Capitol  trying  without  avail  to  get 
action.  Meanwhile  in  the  Senate  something  very  like  a  fili 
buster  was  begun.  Ben  ton  was  impressed  by  the  number  of 
the  speakers,  their  vehemence,  perseverance,  provocative 
attacks  on  Jackson,  and  indirectly  on  the  House.1 

All  this  time,  Jackson  was  patiently  waiting  in  his  room  at 
the  Capitol  to  sign  the  bill  when  passed.  At  midnight  he  put 
on  his  hat  and  returned  to  the  White  House.  The  conference 
and  debate  continued,  with  many,  who  considered  the  session 
dead  at  midnight,2  leaving  the  Capitol,  until  repeated  calls 
of  the  House  failed  to  secure  a  quorum.  At  a  late  hour  some 
of  the  Whig  members  of  the  House  were  insisting  that  the 
amendment  be  abandoned,  with  the  Democrats  refusing  to 
yield  and  placing  the  responsibility  upon  the  Senate.  Par 
tisan  bitterness  became  more  pronounced  as  the  end  ap 
proached.  "There  are  men  who  would  willingly  see  the 
banner  of  France  waving  over  your  Capitol,  rather  than  lose 
an  opportunity  to  make  a  thrust  at  the  Administration,"  bit 
terly  exclaimed  Jesse  Bynum  of  North  Carolina.  "This  is 
not  a  miserable  Administration  or  anti- Administration  ques 
tion,"  protested  Henry  A.  Wise,  the  Whig  who  favored  the 
amendment.  The  danger  of  war  was  real  and  if  it  came 
"every  fortification  on  your  coast  is  liable  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  a  strong  maritime  power,"  he  warned.3  At  inter 
vals,  motions  to  recede  were  offered  and  overwhelmingly 
defeated. 

It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  Cambreleng  re 
turned  to  the  House  with  a  compromise  —  $300,000  for  arming 
the  fortifications,  $500,000  for  repairs  and  the  equipping  of 
war  vessels,  "an  amount  wholly  inadequate  if  it  should  be 
required,  and  more  than  necessary  if  it  should  not."  As  he 
entered  the  House,  he  found  no  quorum,  and  no  possibility 

1  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  594.  2  The  then  prevalent  belief. 

*  Cong.  Globe,  n,  330. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    405 

of  getting  one.  On  a  motion  to  adjourn,  only  111  members 
were  present  and  voting;  a  few  moments  later  but  75;  and  at 
three  o'clock,  Speaker  Bell  rose,  delivered  a  brief  valedictory, 
and  the  House  stood  adjourned  without  day.  The  Nation 
was  naked  to  the  foe,  and  in  the  midst  of  negotiations. 

Far  from  weakening  Jackson's  determination  to  maintain 
the  dignity  and  rights  of  the  Nation,  the  failure  of  the  Forti 
fications  Bill  but  strengthened  his  will,  and  two  days  after 
Congress  adjourned,  Forsyth  instructed  Livingston  to  de 
mand  an  explanation  or  qualification  of  an  insinuation  in 
Serurier's  note  of  withdrawal  that  the  President  had  know 
ingly  misrepresented  in  his  Message  to  Congress.1 

Meanwhile,  in  France,  the  Whigs'  campaign  to  picture 
Jackson  as  isolated  in  his  position  from  both  Congress  and 
the  people  was  having  its  effect,  and  there  were  Whigs  in 
America  who  rejoiced  in  the  fact.  Scanning  the  French  news 
papers,  Philip  Hone  was  delighted  to  find  that  Clay's  report 
and  the  Senate  resolution  had  had  the  effect  he  anticipated. 
He  rejoiced  to  find  that  they  convinced  the  French  that  the 
proposal  of  reprisals  "are  only  the  acts  of  the  President"  and 
"would  not  be  sanctioned  by  the  legislature  of  the  Nation."  2 

And  Hone  was  not  mistaken  as  to  the  effect  of  Jackson's 
firmness  and  the  Senate's  action.  The  money  was  appro 
priated  by  the  Chamber  with  the  payment  contingent  on 
an  apology  or  explanation  from  Jackson.  In  the  discussion 
of  the  appropriation  measure,  Jackson  was  roundly  de 
nounced,  and  ridiculed  as  one  repudiated  by  his  own  people. 
Boasts  were  made  of  the  ease  with  which  France  could  crush 
the  United  States.  "  The  insult  from  President  Jackson  comes 
from  himself  alone,"  said  M.  Henri  de  Chabaulon.  "This 
is  more  evident  from  the  refusal  of  the  American  Congress 
to  concur  with  him  in  it.  ...  Suppose  the  United  States  had 

1  Serurier  to  Forsyth,  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  211;  Forsyth  to  Livingston,  ibid., 
210. 

2  Hone's  Diary,  March  14, 1835. 


406    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

taken  part  with  General  Jackson,  we  should  have  had  to  de 
mand  satisfaction,  not  from  him,  but  from  the  United  States; 
.  .  .  and  we  should  have  had  to  ...  entrust  to  our  heroes  of 
Navarino  and  Algiers  the  task  of  teaching  the  Americans  that 
France  knows  the  way  to  Washington  as  well  as  England." 
And  this  insulting  speech  was  received  with  applause.  "When 
the  Americans  see  this  long  sword,"  exclaimed  M.  Ranee, 
"believe  me,  gentlemen,  they  would  sooner  touch  your  money 
than  dare  to  touch  your  sword."  1  Left  to  his  own  resources 
by  the  absence  of  instructions  on  the  proviso  of  the  measure 
of  the  Chamber,  Livingston  informed  the  Due  de  Broglie 
that  an  attempt  to  enforce  the  proviso  would  be  repelled 
"by  the  undivided  energy  of  the  Nation."  2  And  four  days 
later  he  left  Paris,  with  Barton,  his  son-in-law,  at  the  Amer 
ican  Legation  as  Charge  d'Affaires. 

From  this  time  on  to  the  crisis,  the  American  Legation  in 
Paris  and  the  French  in  Washington  were  under  Charges 
d'Affaires,  and  strangely  enough  the  wives  of  both  were 
prime  favorites  of  Jackson  and  intimates  of  the  White  House 
circle.  The  beautiful  and  exquisite  Cora  Livingston,  daugh 
ter  of  the  Minister,  was  long  the  reigning  belle  of  the  Ameri 
can  capital.  Josiah  Quincy  had  been  infatuated  with  her,  and 
the  story  has  come  down  of  Van  Buren  trying  to  get  her  un 
der  the  mistletoe.  In  the  White  House  she  had  come  and  gone 
with  the  informality  of  a  member  of  the  household,  and  many 
an  evening  she  had  spent  with  Mrs.  Donelson  in  one  of  the 
private  rooms  of  the  President's  house,  with  Jackson  sitting 
at  one  side  smoking  his  pipe.  She  had  married  Barton  a 
short  time  before  Livingston's  departure  for  Paris,  and  it  had 
pleased  the  man  of  iron,  with  so  much  of  tender  sentiment 
where  women  were  concerned,  to  appoint  the  bridegroom 
Secretary  of  the  Legation  that  Cora  might  be  in  Paris 
with  her  mother.  Enclosing  his  commission  in  a  letter  to 

1  Quoted  by  Benton,  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  592. 

2  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  178-79. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    407 

"My  Dear  Cora,"  he  had  asked  her  to  "present  it  to  him  with 
your  own  hand." 

Quite  as  closely  connected  with  the  White  House  circle 
was  Madame  Pageot,  known  to  Jackson  as  little  Delia  Lewis, 
daughter  of  one  of  the  members  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet.  He 
had  known  her  as  a  child  in  Tennessee  where  her  father  dwelt 
close  to  the  Hermitage,  and  she  had  known  and  loved  the 
sainted  Rachel.  When  her  engagement  to  Pageot  was  an 
nounced,  Jackson  had  insisted  that  the  marriage  should  take 
place  in  the  White  House,  and  when  her  first  child  was  born 
and  called  "Andrew  Jackson,"  the  christening  had  been  in 
the  President's  house.  It  was  on  this  occasion  when  the  Min 
ister,  following  the  form,  asked  the  infant,  "Andrew  Jackson, 
do  you  renounce  the  Devil  and  all  his  works?  "  that  the  Pres 
ident  with  great  fervor  responded,  "I  do  most  indubitably," 
to  the  delight  of  all. 

Thus  there  was  a  touch  to  the  closing  days  of  the  crisis 
that  probably  has  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  diplomacy. 

VI 

HAD  the  French  politicians  been  able  to  witness  the  popular 
ovation  accorded  Livingston  on  his  arrival  in  New  York,  they 
might  have  changed  their  opinion  concerning  Jackson's  iso 
lation  from  the  people.  An  immense  crowd  greeted  him  at 
the  wharf,  followed  him  to  his  lodgings,  clamored  for  a  speech, 
and  thronged  the  City  Hall  at  the  public  reception.  Philip 
Hone,  one  of  the  Whigs  who  rejoiced  in  the  demand  of  a 
foreign  nation  for  an  apology  from  the  American  President, 
was  gravely  concerned  because  he  had  returned  in  "a  bad 
humor,"  and  might  "infuse  some  of  it  into  the  mind  of  the 
obstinate  and  weak  old  man  at  the  head  of  the  Government, 
and  so  prevent  an  amicable  arrangement."  1  But  the  Whig 
diarist's  greatest  disgust  came  with  Livingston's  ovation  at 
the  dinner  of  the  Corporation  on  July  4th,  when  at  the  con- 

1  Hone's  Diary,  June  23.  1835. 


408    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

elusion  of  his  brief  speech  the  room  rang  with  cries  of  "No 
explanations ! "  "No  apology ! "  -  dividing,  as  Hone  records, 
"the  echoes  of  the  spacious  dome  with  equally  inspiring 
shouts  of  *  Hurrah  for  Jackson!'  "  1  At  Philadelphia,  en  route 
to  Washington,  Livingston  was  the  guest  of  honor  at  an 
equally  enthusiastic  dinner,  and,  thus  acclaimed  by  his 
countrymen,  he  reached  Washington  and  went  into  con 
ference  with  Jackson,  Forsyth,  and  Van  Buren. 

Calm  and  determined,  Jackson  waited  patiently  until  in 
September  when  he  proposed  to  press  the  issue  to  a  decision. 
Forsyth  sent  instructions  to  Barton.  If  nothing  indicative  of 
a  purpose  to  pay  the  indemnity  had  been  done,  the  Charge 
was  to  call  upon  the  Due  de  Broglie  and  ask  for  a  definite 
answer  with  the  view  to  the  regulation  of  his  conduct.  If  the 
Minister  should  fix  a  day  for  the  payment,  Barton  was  to 
remain  in  Paris;  otherwise  he  was  to  demand  his  passports 
because  of  the  non-execution  of  the  treaty.  And  this  step  was 
to  be  taken  in  time  to  permit  the  result  to  be  communicated 
to  Jackson  before  he  prepared  his  Message  for  the  opening  of 
Congress.  In  the  latter  part  of  October,  Barton  had  his 
audience  with  de  Broglie,  and  handled  himself  with  consum 
mate  tact  and  caution.  With  studied  impudence  the  French 
Minister  announced  that  the  money  would  be  forthcoming 
when  an  explanation  or  apology  had  been  received,  and  a 
few  days  later,  Barton  sailed  for  the  United  States. 

Meanwhile  the  Congress  convened,  and  Jackson  in  his 
Message  reported  progress,  soberly  reviewing  the  course  of 
the  negotiations  up  to  the  passage  of  the  indemnity  bill  by 
the  French  Chamber  with  its  offensive  proviso,  and  bluntly 
concluding  that  the  French  Government  has  "received  all 
the  explanation  which  honor  and  principle  permitted. "  He 
informed  Congress  of  his  final  instructions  to  Barton  and 
of  his  purpose  to  communicate  the  result  when  ascertained. 

It  was  while  awaiting  the  report  of  the  American  Charge 

1  Hone's  Diary,  July  4.  1835. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    409 

d  'Affaires  that  M.  Pageot  received  notice  of  his  recall,  and 
by  the  time  he  was  able  to  sail  the  two  nations  were  on  the 
verge  of  war.  Hone,  noting  the  departure  of  the  Poland 
bearing  M.  Pageot  and  "the  odds  and  ends  of  the  French 
Legation, "  could  not  restrain  his  mirth  over  the  prospective 
discomfiture  of  the  French  Charge  in  bearing  back  to  the 
French  Court  a  young  heir,  bearing  "the  august  name  of 
Andrew  Jackson. "  1 

When  Barton  reached  New  York,  he  hastened  with  all 
speed  to  Washington,  where  Livingston  awaited  him.  It 
was  with  no  little  anxiety  that  Van  Buren,  Forsyth,  and 
Livingston  accompanied  him  to  the  White  House.  The 
three  older  men,  all  devoted  to  Jackson,  and  all  at  some 
time  at  the  head  of  his  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs,  were 
greatly  concerned  over  the  possible  effect  of  the  report  on 
the  thoroughly  aroused  President. 

Observing  their  solemnity,  Barton  turned  upon  them: 

"Well,  gentlemen,  shall  it  be  oil  or  water?" 

"Oh,  water,  by  all  means,"  they  answered  in  a  chorus. 

To  none  of  these,  not  even  to  Livingston,  had  Barton  indi 
cated  the  nature  of  the  report  he  had  to  make.  Pressing  the 
former  Minister's  hand  as  a  token  of  appreciation  of  his  con 
fidence,  Barton  led  the  way  into  the  iron  man's  presence. 

The  moment  the  conference  was  over,  Jackson  began  the 
preparation  of  his  Message  to  Congress,  and,  on  its  comple 
tion,  submitted  it  to  Livingston.  In  view  of  Hone's  fear,  it 
is  interesting  to  note  that  it  was  the  former  Minister  of  State 
who  persuaded  Jackson  to  a  moderation  of  its  tone.  Drawing 
a  substitute,  he  sent  it  to  the  White  House  with  an  ingra 
tiating  letter. 

"The  characteristics  of  the  present  communication,"  he 
wrote,  "ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  moderation  and  firmness. 
Our  cause  is  so  good  that  we  need  not  be  violent.  Modera 
tion  in  language,  firmness  in  purpose,  will  unite  all  hearts 

1  Hone's  Diary,  Jan.  26,  1836. 


410    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

at  home,  all  opinion  abroad,  in  our  favor.  Warmth  and  re 
crimination  will  give  arguments  to  false  friends  and  real 
enemies,  which  they  may  use  with  effect  against  us.  On 
these  principles  I  have  framed  a  hasty  draft  which  I  enclose. 
You  will,  with  your  usual  discernment,  determine  whether  it 
suits  the  present  emergency.  At  any  rate,  I  know  you  will 
do  justice  to  the  motive  that  has  induced  me  to  offer  it."  1 

Jackson  took  the  advice  in  good  part,  destroyed  his  decla 
ration  of  war,  and  prepared,  with  the  assistance  of  Forsyth, 
another,  which  was  submitted  to  Congress  on  January  15th. 
It  was  an  excited  body  of  men  that  listened  that  winter  day 
to  the  reading  of  the  Message  that  might  mean  war.  But 
three  days  before,  an  acrimonious  debate  had  been  precipi 
tated  by  Benton,  charging  the  partisanship  of  the  Senate 
with  responsibility  for  the  failure  of  the  Fortifications  Bill; 
and  only  the  day  before,  Webster,  in  a  spirited  reply,  had 
attempted  to  shift  responsibility  to  the  Democratic  House. 
John  Quincy  Adams,  enraged  at  Webster's  reflections  upon 
the  House,  was  meditating  his  sensational  reply.  In  this 
atmosphere  the  Message  was  read. 

After  reviewing  the  controversy  up  to  the  hour  of  the  Mes 
sage,  with  the  declaration  that  "the  spirit  of  the  American 
people,  the  dignity  of  the  Legislature,  and  the  firm  resolve 
of  their  Executive  Government  forbid"  an  apology  or  ex 
planation,  he  called  upon  Congress  to  "sustain  Executive 
exertion  in  such  measures  as  the  case  requires."  This 
included,  according  to  his  idea,  reprisals,  the  exclusion  of 
French  products  and  French  vessels  from  American  ports. 
But  there  was  more  to  be  done.  Naval  preparations  of  the 
French  intended  for  our  seas  had  been  announced.  He  knew 
not  the  purpose.  But,  "come  what  may,  the  explanation 
which  France  demands  can  never  be  accorded,  and  no  arma 
ment,  however  powerful  and  imposing,  at  a  distance  or  on 
our  coast,  will,  I  trust,  deter  us  from  discharging  the  high 

1  Hunt's  Life  of  Livingston. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    411 

duties  we  owe  to  our  constituents,  our  national  character, 
and  to  the  world";  and  he  called  upon  the  Congress  "to 
vindicate  the  faith  of  treaties  and  to  promote  the  general 
interest  of  peace,  civilization,  and  improvement."  1 

VII 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  seriousness  of  the  crisis  the  memory 
of  the  failure  of  the  Fortifications  Bill  in  the  last  session 
would  not  down.  Throughout  the  spring,  summer,  and  au 
tumn  of  1835,  the  press  and  politicians  were  engaged  in  bitter 
criminations  and  recriminations  as  to  the  responsibility.  It 
was  manifestly  the  fault  of  the  Senate  Whigs,  but  their  har 
assed  leaders  bitterly  retaliated  on  the  Democratic  House, 
and  drew  upon  their  imagination  in  an  effort  to  place  re 
sponsibility  upon  the  Jacksonian  leaders.  A  fantastical 
article,  once  attributed  to  Daniel  Webster,  appeared  in  the 
"National  Gazette,"  charging  that  Van  Buren  and  John 
Forsyth  had  expressed  the  wish  to  Cambreleng,  the  Demo 
cratic  leader  in  the  House,  that  the  bill  should  fail,  that  the 
calamity  might  be  ascribed  to  the  Whigs  of  the  Senate.  The 
people  had  been  thoroughly  outraged  at  the  base  prostitu 
tion  of  the  Nation's  interest  to  the  pettiness  of  party  politics. 
During  the  summer,  Blair  called  attention  in  the  "Globe" 
to  Serurier's  action  in  sending  to  Paris  with  Jackson's  Mes 
sage  the  criticism  of  the  "National  Intelligencer,"  with  the 
comment  that  the  French  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs 
would  do  well  to  read  the  two  together!  Paris  was  assured 
by  Serurier  that  the  Whig  paper  had  "pretty  considerable 
influence,"  had  "under  the  presidencies  of  Madison  and 
Monroe  been  the  official  paper,"  and  "has  spoken  energetic 
ally  against  the  measure "  the  President  had  proposed.  The 
President's  sharp  reference  to  the  unfortunate  situation  cre 
ated  by  the  failure  of  the  bill,  in  his  Message  of  December, 

1  The  naval  activities  in  France  are  set  forth  by  Benton,  in  Thirty  Years'  View, 
I,  592-93. 


412    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

1835,  had  shown  a  determination,  on  the  part  of  that  con 
summate  politician,  to  turn  the  popular  indignation  upon 
the  Opposition.  However,  with  the  passion  of  the  parties 
smouldering  beneath  the  surface,  there  was  no  open  fight 
until,  on  January  12th,  the  pugnacious  Benton,  speaking  on 
the  national  defense,  reviewed  the  failure  of  the  Fortifica 
tions  Bill,  and  laid  the  responsibility  at  the  Senate's  door. 
He  closed  his  biting  comments  with  an  effective  reference  to 
the  approach  of  the  French  squadron,  sent  on  the  supposi 
tion  of  our  helplessness,  and  the  suggestion  that  the  Senate 
should  then  act  "under  the  guns  of  France  and  under  the 
eyes  of  Europe."  1 

That  was  the  call  to  battle.  The  irate  Webster  sprang  to 
his  feet  to  announce  that  a  little  later  he  would  be  able  to 
exonerate  the  Senate,  and  the  fiery  Leigh  of  Virginia  pro 
tested  that  "the  objection  to  the  appropriation  was  not  be 
cause  of  any  distrust  of  the  President,"  but  because  of  the 
unconstitutionality  of  the  amendment:  this  in  delicious  dis 
regard  of  the  plain  record  of  the  debate.  But  Preston,  who 
followed,  exposed  the  cloven  hoof  of  the  partisan  animus. 
If  the  French  fleet  was  coming,  why  had  the  President  kept 
Congress  in  the  dark?  Why  had  he  withdrawn  our  repre 
sentatives  from  Paris?  Why  had  we  no  representative  at  the 
Court  of  England?  —  an  audacious  question  in  view  of  the 
refusal  by  the  Whig  Senate  to  confirm  either  of  two  excellent 
appointments  to  that  post.  Why  assume  that  the  French 
fleet  came  with  hostile  motives?  "It  may  be  that  this  fleet 
is  coming  to  protect  the  commerce  of  France,"  he  thought. 
From  this  it  was  an  easy  step  to  the  reiteration  of  the  Whig 
apologies  for  and  defense  of  the  action  of  the  French  Govern 
ment.2 

But  the  last  word  in  defense  of  the  Senate  was  reserved  for 
Webster,  who  rose  twenty -four  hours  before  the  Special  Mes 
sage  reached  the  Senate  and  while  it  was  being  prepared.  It 

1  Cong.  Globe,  n,  91-92.  »  Ibid..  92. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    413 

was  a  laboriously  wrought  attempt.  The  amendment  to  the 
Fortifications  Bill  had  been  offered  at  the  eleventh  hour.  The 
President  had  not  requested  the  additional  appropriation  in 
a  Message.  No  department  had  recommended  it.  Nothing 
of  which  Congress  was  cognizant  had  occurred  to  justify  it. 
The  Senate  had  passed  a  resolution  "reminding"  the  House 
of  the  bill  in  the  closing  hours.  The  conference  report  had 
not  been  passed  upon  by  the  House.  And  "the  bill  therefore 
was  lost.  It  was  lost  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  It 
died  there,  and  there  its  remains  are  to  be  found."  Had  not 
the  President  announced  at  one  o'clock  that  he  would  receive 
no  further  communications  from  the  Congress?  What  right 
had  he  to  interfere  with  the  time  Congress  should  fix  for  ad 
journment?  1  And  what  constitutional  right  had  Congress 
to  make  an  appropriation  when  there  was  no  specification  of 
the  precise  use  to  be  made  of  the  money?  And  with  true 
Websterian  eloquence  he  closed  with  mournful  meditations 
on  the  encroachments  of  Jackson  upon  the  Constitution,  and 
the  prediction  that,  unless  checked,  men,  then  living,  would 
"  write  the  history  of  this  government,  from  its  commence 
ment  to  its  close." 2 

That  the  Jacksonians  were  not  impressed  with  the  danger 
was  shown  in  the  brief  reply  of  Cuthbert  of  Georgia,  that  the 
great  danger  to  Rome  was  not  in  the  kingly  name  they  feared, 
but  "in  the  patrician  class,  a  moneyed  aristocracy,  a  com 
bination  of  their  political  leaders,  seeking  to  establish  an 
aristocratical  government,  regardless  of  the  welfare  of  the 
people."  But  the  answer  to  Webster  was  not  to  come  from 
a  Democrat,  but  from  a  Whig  —  and  that,  too,  a  Whig  from 
Massachusetts,  who  had  been  defeated  for  reelection  to  the 
Presidency  by  Andrew  Jackson! 

1  At  that  time  it  was  generally  believed  that  a  Congress  died  at  midnight  on  the 
3d  of  March  rather  than  at  noon  on  the  4th,  as  now  assumed. 

2  Webster's  Works,  iv,  205-29. 


414    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

vm 

THERE  had  long  been  an  undercurrent  of  hostility  between 
Daniel  Webster  and  John  Quincy  Adams.  Webster  had  gladly 
left  the  House  during  the  Adams  Administration  to  escape 
the  necessity  of  defending  the  President;  and  the  comments 
on  the  great  orator,  running  through  the  famous  "Diary"  of 
Adams,  are  often  sarcastic,  usually  unfriendly,  and  seldom 
fulsome.  That  this  spirit  of  animus  alone  should  have  im 
pelled  Adams  to  make  his  notable  reply  —  a  reply  which 
has  been  strangely  ignored  by  historians  —  cannot  be  rec 
onciled  with  his  character  as  a  public  man.  The  fact  that 
Webster  had  assailed  the  House  of  which  Adams  was  a  lead 
ing  member,  and  the  amendment  with  which  Adams  had 
had  something  to  do,  may  explain  the  bitterness  of  his  retort. 
But  no  one  can  read  the  speeches  of  Adams  on  the  French 
controversy  without  being  impressed  with  the  robust  Ameri 
canism  of  the  man,  and  his  utter  impatience  with  a  partisan 
thought  in  the  presence  of  a  foreign  adversary. 

The  opportunity  for  Adams's  reply  came  one  week  after 
the  Webster  speech,  six  days  after  the  President's  Special 
Message,  and  when  the  international  crisis  seemed  most  men 
acing.  The  "National  Intelligencer"  had  made  an  attack 
upon  the  House  of  Representatives,  along  the  line  of  the 
Webster  speech,  and  Cambreleng,  who  had  been  personally 
assailed,  in  resenting  the  article  had  said  that  "more  than 
one  member  of  the  House,  not  only  on  this  side,  but  on  both 
sides,  will  vindicate  the  proceedings  of  the  House  in  relation 
to  the  bill."  Immediately  afterwards  Adams  presented  his 
resolution  for  an  investigation,  and  launched  into  one  of  the 
most  bitter,  dramatic,  and  sensational  speeches  ever  heard 
in  the  American  Congress.  He  rose  in  fighting  armor. 
Scarcely  had  he  begun  his  attack  upon  the  Senate  when  he 
was  called  to  order  for  mentioning  that  body;  whereupon 
he  jauntily  observed  that  he  would  "transfer  the  location  of 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    415 

the  place  where  these  things  had  happened  from  the  Senate 
to  the  office  of  the  *  National  Intelligencer' "  —  and  thus  pro 
ceeded  to  the  castigation  of  that  journal.  In  explaining  the 
reasons  for  the  three-million-dollar  amendment,  he  recounted 
the  story  of  the  resolution  adopted  in  the  House. 

"In  all  the  debates  in  the  *  National  Intelligencer,'"  he 
said,  "there  is  no  more  trace  of  such  a  resolution  having 
passed  the  House  than  if  it  had  never  existed;  no  more  trace 
than  can  be  found  on  the  journal  of  the  Senate  of  what  they 
would  do  for  the  defense  of  the  country,  or  to  insist  on  the 
execution  of  the  treaty  of  July.  But  in  the  debate  in  the  'Na 
tional  Intelligencer,'  I  find  a  prodigious  display  of  eloquence 
against  the  constitutionality  of  the  section  appropriating 
$3,000,000  for  the  defense  of  the  country,  because  it  had  not 
been  recommended  by  the  Executive." 

The  House  was  instantly  in  an  uproar,  and  Adams  was 
again  called  to  order  for  his  reference  to  the  Senate.  The  old 
man  stood  listening  calmly  to  the  excited  observations  of 
some  of  his  colleagues,  and  was  finally  permitted  to  proceed. 

"Observe,  sir,"  he  continued,  "the  terms,  the  object,  and 
the  conditions  of  that  appropriation.  It  was  to  be  expended, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  under  the  direction  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  —  the  executive  head  of  the  Nation,  sworn  to 
the  faithful  execution  of  the  laws;  sworn  especially,  and  en 
trusted  with  the  superintendence  of  all  the  defenses  of  the 
country  against  the  ravages  of  a  foreign  invader;  it  was  to  be 
expended  for  the  military  and  naval  service,  including  forti 
fications  and  ordnance  and  increase  of  the  navy.  These,  sir, 
the  natural  and  appropriate  instruments  of  defense  against 
a  foreign  foe,  were  the  sole  and  exclusive  objects  of  the  appro 
priation.  Not  one  dollar  of  it  could  have  been  applied  by  him 
to  any  other  purposes  without  making  himself  liable  to  im 
peachment;  not  by  that  House  of  Representatives,  but  by 
us,  their  successors,  fresh  from  the  constituent  body,  the 
people;  yet  before  the  same  Senate  for  his  judges,  a  majority 


416    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

of  whom  were  surely  not  of  his  friends;  not  one  dollar  of  it 
could  have  been  expended  without  giving  a  public  account 
of  it  to  the  representatives  of  the  people  and  to  the  Nation. 
Nor  was  this  all.  Thus  confined  to  specific  objects,  it  was  to 
be  expended,  not  unconditionally,  but  only  in  the  event  that 
it  should  be  rendered  necessary  for  the  defense  of  the  country 
prior  to  the  then  next  session  of  Congress  —  an  interval  of 
nine  months  —  during  which  no  other  provision  could  have 
been  made  to  defend  your  soil  from  sudden  invasion,  or  to 
protect  your  commerce  floating  upon  every  sea  from  a  sweep 
of  a  royal  ordinance  of  France. 

"And  this  is  the  appropriation,  following  close  upon  that 
unanimous  vote  of  217  members  of  the  House,  that  the  exe 
cution  of  the  Treaty  of  1831  should  be  maintained  and  in 
sisted  upon.  This  is  the  appropriation  so  tainted  with  man- 
worship,  so  corrupt,  so  unconstitutional,  that  the  indignant 
and  patriotic  eloquence  of  the  'National  Intelligencer'  would 
sooner  see  a  foreign  foe  battering  down  the  walls  of  the 
Capitol  than  agree  to  it." 

If  this  reference  to  the  declaration  of  Webster  caused  the 
members  of  the  House  to  catch  their  breath,  the  next  sen 
tence  brought  the  Democrats  to  their  feet  with  prolonged 
cheers  and  shouts. 

"Sir,"  Adams  continued,  "for  a  man  uttering  such  sen 
timents  there  would  be  but  one  step  more,  a  natural  and  an 
easy  one  to  take,  and  that  would  be,  with  the  enemy  at  the 
walls  of  the  Capitol,  to  join  him  in  battering  them  down." 

With  the  Whigs  dazed,  and  the  Democrats  shouting  their 
approval,  James  K.  Polk,  in  the  chair,  was  forced  to  hammer 
vigorously  with  his  gavel  before  he  could  restore  any  sem 
blance  of  order  —  and  the  old  man  lunged  again  at  Webster's 
argument. 

"Are  we  to  be  told,"  he  asked,  "that  this  and  the  other 
House  must  not  appropriate  money  unless  by  recommenda 
tion  from  the  Executive?  Why,  sir,  the  Executive  has  told 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    417 

us  now  that  that  appropriation  was  perfectly  in  accord  with 
his  wishes.  Yet  here  the  charge  is  inverted,  and  unconsti 
tutional  conspiracy  and  man-worship  are  imputed  to  this 
House  on  account  of  that  appropriation  because  it  was  ap 
proved  and  desired  by  the  Executive.  Where  was  the  possi 
bility  of  a  recommendation  from  the  Executive;  of  state 
ments  from  the  departments;  of  messages  between  this  and 
the  other  House,  when  the  resolution  of  the  House  had  been 
passed  but  the  day  before?.  .  ." 

And  man- worship?  Here  Adams  refused  to  follow  his 
fellow  Whigs  in  withholding  commendation  from  the  patri 
otism  of  the  President. 

"I  will  appeal  to  the  House  to  say  whether  I  am  a  wor 
shiper  of  the  Executive.  .  .  .  Neither  the  measure  of  issuing 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  nor  the  measures  of  commer 
cial  interdict  or  restriction  —  neither  had  that  House  ap 
proved;  but  the  House,  and,  thank  God,  the  people  of  the 
country,  have  done  homage  to  the  spirit  which  had  urged  to 
the  recommendation,  even  of  those  measures  which  they  did 
not  approve.  Why  must  the  House  be  charged  with  man- 
worship  and  unconstitutional  conspiracy,  because  they 
passed  an  appropriation  of  three  millions  for  the  defense  of 
the  country,  at  a  time  when  imminent  danger  of  war  was 
urged,  as  resulting  from  that  very  resolution,  which,  but  the 
night  before,  passed  by  a  unanimous  vote?  Because,  forsooth, 
that  appropriation  had  not  been  asked  for  by  the  Executive; 
and  yet  because  it  was  approved  by  the  Executive." 

In  reviewing  the  action  of  both  Senate  and  House  on  the 
President's  recommendation,  Adams  scornfully  and  con 
temptuously  dismissed  the  Clay  resolution  in  a  few  words: 
"A  resolution  not  only  declining  to  do  that  which  the  Presi 
dent  had  recommended  to  vindicate  the  rights  and  honor  of 
the  Nation,  but  positively  determining  to  do  nothing  —  not 
even  to  express  a  sense  of  the  wrongs  which  the  country  was 
enduring  from  France." 


418    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

"And  now,  sir,"  he  continued,  "where  is  all  this  scaffold 
ing  of  indignation  and  horror  at  the  appropriation  for  specific 
purposes,  for  the  defense  of  the  country,  because,  forsooth, 
it  had  not  been  recommended  by  the  Special  Message  of  the 
Executive?  Gone,  sir,  gone!  You  shall  look  for  it  and  you 
shall  not  find  it.  You  shall  find  no  more  trace  of  it  than,  in 
the  tales  of  the  'National  Intelligencer,'  you  shall  find  of 
that  vote  of  217  yeas  —  which  was  the  real  voucher  for  the 
purity  and  patriotism  of  that  appropriation  of  $3,000,000  — 
denounced  to  the  world  by  the  eloquent  orators  of  the  sena 
torial  press  as  so  profligate  and  corrupt,  that  an  enemy  at  the 
gates  of  this  Capitol  could  not  have  justified  a  vote  in  its 
favor  to  arrest  his  arm,  and  stay  his  hand  in  battering  down 
these  walls.  You  shall  find  no  more  trace  of  it  upon  the  jour 
nals  of  the  Senate  than  you  shall  find  of  sensibility  to  the 
wrongs  which  our  country  was  enduring  from  France." 

The  old  man  eloquent  thence  passed  to  the  complaint  that 
the  Senate  was  ignorant  of  the  reasons  impelling  the  House 
to  the  adoption  of  the  amendment,  and  tore  it  to  shreds ;  and 
then  on  to  the  responsibility  for  the  failure  of  the  bill.  This, 
he  contended,  was  due  to  the  very  spirit  of  the  Senate  — 
its  temper  an  insult  to  the  President  and  the  House.  The 
Webster  motion  to  adhere,  he  said,  was  always  considered 
a  "challenge,"  and  had  never  before  been  made  at  such  an 
early  stage  of  a  difference  between^  the  Houses.  "It  was  a 
special  disposition,"  he  said,  "to  cast  odium  on  the  House, 
a  special  bravado  that  induced  the  Senate  thus  to  draw  the 
sword,  and  throw  away  the  scabbard  —  and  they  adhered." 

Turning  then  to  the  willingness  of  the  Senate,  when  it  was 
too  late,  to  accept  an  amendment  for  $800,000  instead  of 
$3,000,000,  he  continued: 

"Thus,  sir,  this  horrible  conspiracy  against  the  Consti 
tution  melted  down  to  a  mere  question  of  dollars  and  cents." 
And  when  this  agreement  was  reached  by  the  Senate,  the 
House  was  dead  —  the  hour  of  midnight  having  passed.  He 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS    419 

did  not  himself  believe  that  a  Congress  died  at  midnight,  but 
others  did,  and  they  were  conscientious.  And  the  Senate, 
knowing  of  that  situation,  had  the  insolence  to  adopt  its 
resolution  of  reminder  and  send  it  to  the  House.  "But  to 
complete  the  true  character  of  that  message  we  must  inquire 
at  what  time  it  was  sent.  It  was  sent  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning;  it  was  sent  at  a  time  when  it  was  known,  both  in 
the  House  and  the  Senate,  that  no  quorum  was  to  be  found. 
When  that  message  was  delivered,  I  must  confess,  if  ever  a 
feeling  of  shame  and  indignation  had  filled  my  bosom,  it  was 
at  that  moment.  I  felt  it  was  an  insult  to  the  immediate  rep 
resentatives  of  the  people;  and  if  it  had  been  sent  at  a  mo 
ment  when  the  House  existed,  with  the  power  to  resent  un 
provoked  insult,  I  verily  believe,  that,  imitating  the  example 
of  our  Congress  in  a  somewhat  similar  case  during  the  Revo 
lutionary  War,  I  should  have  moved  that  a  message  be  sent 
by  two  members  of  the  House  to  cast  the  Senate  message  on 
their  floor,  and  tell  them  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the  House 
to  receive  insolent  messages."  l 

Thus  did  Adams  the  Whig  stand  forth  as  the  special 
champion  of  the  President  and  the  Democratic  House,  and 
tear  the  Webster  sophistry  to  tatters;  thus  did  he  serve  no 
tice  that,  outside  the  more  selfish  politicians  of  the  Whig  Op 
position,  the  Nation  applauded  the  spirit  of  Jackson  and  was 
prepared  to  follow  him  against  any  foreign  foe.  The  speech 
was  the  sensation  of  the  day,  and  Adams  was  never  forgiven. 
Henry  A.  Wise,  the  brilliant  Virginia  Whig,  followed  in  a  re 
markable  medley  of  gossipy  charges  against  his  colleagues,  but 
his  effort  was  so  novel  in  its  irregularities  that  it  destroyed 
itself  —  and  the  fight  over  the  loss  of  the  Fortifications  Bill 
is  told  in  the  speeches  of  Webster  and  Adams.  The  Whigs 
pursued  the  latter  with  their  resentment  to  the  polls  in  the 
autumn  of  that  year,  and  he  was  able  to  record,  after  the 

1  Cong.  Globe,  n,  130-32.  Reference  is  also  made  to  the  debate  in  Sargent's  Pub' 
lie  Men  and  Events,  i,  309. 


420    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

election,  that  he  was  "reelected  to  the  next  Congress  with 
out  formal  opposition,  but  almost  without  Whig  votes." 
And  looking  back  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and  recording  his 
impressions,  he  referred  to  his  reply  to  Webster  with  evident 
relish.  "It  demolished  the  speech  of  Webster,"  he  wrote, 
"drove  him  from  the  field,  and  whipped  him  and  his  party 
into  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Nation  in  the  quarrel  with  the 
French  King."  1  It  did  something  more;  it  disclosed  the  fact 
that  the  Whig  leaders,  in  their  hate  of  Jackson,  approached 
perilously  near  disloyalty  to  their  country.  If  Jackson  won 
his  fight,  it  was  after  battling  against,  not  only  the  Govern 
ment  of  France,  but  against  the  party  Opposition  at  home. 
And  fighting  this  double  battle,  he  won. 

IX 

ADAMS  spoke  on  January  21,  1836,  while  Congress  was 
considering  the  recommendations  of  the  Special  Message. 
Alphonse  Pageot,  and  his  wife  and  son,  Andrew  Jackson, 
were  in  New  York  awaiting  passage  back  to  France;  and  two 
days  after  the  French  Charge  left  New  York,  Charles  Bank- 
head,  the  British  Charge  d' Affaires  at  Washington,  acting  on 
instructions  from  his  Government,  offered  the  mediation  of 
England  in  the  settlement  of  the  Franco-American  dispute, 
in  a  letter  to  Forsyth.  Jackson  and  his  Secretary  of  State 
took  six  days  to  deliberate  on  the  proposal  before  giving  a 
formal  answer.  The  note,  signed,  and  no  doubt  prepared  by 
Forsyth,  is  a  strong  and  polished  review  of  the  controversy, 
a  reiteration  of  Livingston's  contention  that  no  nation  has 
the  right  to  attempt  an  interference  with  the  "consultation" 
of  the  departments  of  the  American  Government,  and  an 
explicit  reservation  that  the  American  Government  would 
not  make  the  explanation  or  apology  prescribed  by  the 
Government  of  France.  There  is  no  single  sign  of  weaken 
ing,  absolutely  nothing  new  in  the  way  of  a  concession,  and 

1  Adams's  Memoirs,  Dec.  29, 1836. 


WHIG  DISLOYALTY  IN  FRENCH  CRISIS 

only  a  repetition  of  the  Livingston  notes  to  the  Due  de 
Broglie. 

Twelve  days  later,  Bankhead  informed  Forsyth  of  the 
success  of  the  mediation.  "The  French  Government,"  he 
wrote,  "has  stated  .  .  .  that  the  frank  and  honorable  manner 
in  which  the  President  has,  in  his  recent  Message,  expressed 
himself  in  regard  to  the  points  of  difference  between  the 
Governments  of  France  and  the  United  States,  has  removed 
those  difficulties,  upon  the  score  of  national  honor,  which 
have  hitherto  stood  in  the  way  of  the  prompt  execution  by 
France  of  the  treaty."  1  This  was  a  complete  reversal.  The 
President  had  "expressed  himself  on  the  points  of  difference" 
through  Livingston,  in  conversation,  and  through  notes  to 
both  de  Rigny  and  de  Broglie,  and  he  had  expressed  himself 
to  them  precisely  as  in  "his  recent  Message."  And  it  was 
after  he  had  thus  expressed  himself  that  France  had  in 
sisted  that  an  explanation  or  apology  prescribed  by  her 
should  be  made  as  a  condition  to  the  execution  of  the  treaty. 
Jackson  added  nothing;  France  accepted  what  she  had  scorn 
fully  refused  before,  and  the  triumph  of  Jackson  was  com 
plete.  On  May  10th  Jackson  was  able  to  inform  Congress 
that  France  had  paid  the  four  installments  due.  Thus,  after 
the  failures  of  the  Administrations  of  Jefferson,  Madison, 
Monroe,  and  Adams  to  get  a  settlement  with  France,  Jack 
son  had  negotiated  a  treaty  within  two  years  of  his  first 
inauguration,  and  had  enforced  the  observance  of  the  treaty 
almost  a  year  before  the  expiration  of  his  last  term. 

The  theory  of  some  historians  that  Jackson,  in  his  dealings 
with  foreign  nations,  was  lacking  in  finesse  and  success,  is 
manifestly  colored  by  blind  prejudice.  The  prestige  of  the 
Nation  abroad  was  never  so  high  as  after  his  stern  insistence 
that  a  treaty  with  the  United  States  could  no  more  be  disre 
garded  than  one  with  any  of  the  European  Powers.  John 
Fiske  touched  the  real  significance  of  the  result  of  the  con- 

1  Messages  and  Papers,  in,  221-22.    ' 


PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

troversy  when  he  wrote  that  "the  days  when  foreign  powers 
could  safely  insult  us  were  evidently  gone  by."  1  And  the 
same  historian  discloses  the  necessity  for  the  position  as 
sumed  by  Jackson.  "In  foreign  affairs,"  he  writes,  "Jack 
son's  Administration  won  great  credit  through  its  enforce 
ment  of  the  French  spoliation  claims.  European  nations 
which  had  claims  for  damages  against  France  on  account  of 
spoliations  committed  by  French  cruisers  during  the  Napo 
leonic  wars,  had  no  difficulty  after  the  Peace  of  1815  in  ob 
taining  payment;  but  the  claims  of  the  United  States  had 
been  superciliously  neglected."  2  And  so  pronounced  a  par 
tisan  as  John  W.  Foster,  Secretary  of  State  under  the  second 
Harrison,  has  recorded  the  deliberate  judgment  that  "in  its 
foreign  relations  his  Administration  maintained  a  dignified 
and  creditable  attitude."  3 

The  Whig  leaders  in  the  Senate  and  the  press,  the  Clays 
and  Websters  and  the  Gales,  had  permitted  their  bitterness 
against  Jackson  to  lead  them  to  the  verge  of  disloyalty  to 
country,  and  the  indignant  protest  of  Adams  was  a  true  re 
flection  of  the  popular  opinion.  The  clever  politicians  of  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet  were  not  slow  to  see  the  opportunity  again 
to  picture  Jackson  as  the  patriotic  hero,  for  the  second  time 
leading  his  people  in  a  fight  against  a  foreign  adversary. 

1  Fiske's  Historical  Essays,  I,  308.  2  Ibid.,  307. 

8  Foster's  A  Century  of  American  Diplomacy,  273. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION 
I 

FROM  the  adjournment  of  Congress  in  March,  1835,  until  it 
convened  in  December,  the  political  leaders  concerned  them 
selves  with  presidential  politics,  and  the  struggle  for  position 
was  desperate  and  unscrupulous.  From  the  hour  in  the  first 
year  of  his  first  Administration,  when  Jackson,  fearful  of  an 
early  death,  wrote  his  celebrated  letter  to  Judge  Overton  ex 
pressing  a  preference  for  Van  Buren,  the  latter  had  been  looked 
upon  as  the  crown  prince.  From  that  hour  the  master  political 
manipulators  surrounding  Jackson  made  no  move  not  in 
tended  to  advance  the  "magician"  toward  the  goal  of  his 
ambition.  In  the  summer  of  1833  Major  Lewis  was  disturbed 
over  the  prospective  candidacy  of  Justice  McLean,1  but  it 
failed  to  materialize,  and,  within  a  year  after  the  Major's 
trepidation,  the  White  House  circle  realized  that  the  most 
serious  challenge  to  the  plans  for  the  succession  would  come 
from  Hugh  Lawson  White  of  Tennessee,  considered  a  rene 
gade  from  the  Jackson  camp.  The  close  attachment  of  the 
President  and  the  Senator  from  his  State  had  perceptibly 
cooled  in  less  than  a  year  after  the  inauguration.  The  latter 
was  of  a  proud  and  sensitive  temperament,  and  the  growing 
intimacy  of  his  old  friend  with  the  new  school  of  practical 
politicians  was  enough  to  estrange  him.  Had  he  hoped  in  the 
beginning  to  become  the  legatee  of  Jackson,  we  should  have 
a  plausible  explanation  of  his  bitter  resentment  of  the  Pres 
ident's  failure  to  observe  his  one-term  pledge.  We  only  know 
that  he  drifted,  first  into  the  position  of  an  independent 
supporter  of  the  Administration,  and  later  into  one  of  frank 

1  Lewis  to  Hamilton,  Hamilton's  Reminiscences,  259. 


424    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

hostility.  His  imagination  began  early  to  play  pranks  with 
his  judgment.  He  began  to  seek  evidence  of  slights.  In  all 
the  new  school  of  Jacksonian  leaders  he  saw  enemies.  He 
carefully  scrutinized  the  "Globe"  for  discriminations  against 
him.  That  there  was  no  conscious  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
paper  to  ignore  him  is  shown  in  the  action  of  Blair,  on  learn 
ing  that  the  Senator  was  offended.  In  a  cordial  letter  he 
assured  the  suspicious  Senator  that  he  felt  "the  most  perfect 
consciousness"  that  he  had  "done  nothing  to  offend  — 
certainly  not  intentionally,"  and  begged  him  to  "frankly 
state  the  offense  that  it  may  be  righted."  The  curt,  ungra 
cious  reply  of  White  was  overlooked  and  an  appeal  made  for 
a  personal  interview,  but  .the  response  was  so  repellent  that 
further  attempts  at  a  reconciliation  were  abandoned.  There 
is  some  justification  for  the  conclusion  that  White  had  early 
determined  upon  a  quarrel  with  the  view  to  placing  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  opposition  wing  of  the  Democratic  Party. 
In  1833  the  Opposition  began  to  claim  him  as  its  own  when 
he  supported  Calhoun's  bill  on  Executive  patronage  in  a 
powerful  speech,  and  joined  Clay  in  opposing  the  Administra 
tion  plan  in  the  Nullification  fight. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  under  these  conditions  the  small 
faction  of  the  Democratic  Party  should  have  turned  to  him 
as  the  logical  man  to  pit  against  the  pretensions  of  Van  Buren. 
The  former  was  a  Southerner,  the  latter  a  Northerner,  and 
the  slavery  controversy  had  become  acute.  The  fact  that 
White  was  a  Tennesseean  was  expected  to  embarrass  and 
handicap  Jackson  in  his  support  of  the  New  Yorker.  To  the 
Whigs  he  not  only  presented  the  best  prospect  for  a  schism 
in  the  party  in  power,  but  for  a  time  the  leaders  actually 
considered  the  wisdom  of  making  him  their  own  candidate. 
Clay  was  fearful  that  his  candidacy  would  fail  to  infuse 
among  the  Whigs  "the  spirit  and  zeal  necessary  to  insure 
success,"  but  thought  he  might,  as  an  independent  can 
didate,  "obtain  the  undivided  support  of  the  South  and 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        425 

South-West,"  and  thus  throw  the  contest  into  the  House 
and  defeat  Van  Buren.1  Thus  all  the  elements  were  present 
to  make  his  disaffection  probable.  Hurt  by  what  he  con 
ceived  to  be  Jackson's  ingratitude,  jealous  of  the  new  friends 
that  haunted  the  White  House,  importuned  by  the  anti- 
Administration  Democrats,  and  cleverly  encouraged  by  the 
Whigs,  he  was  gradually  pushed  into  the  attitude  of  a  candi 
date.  To  all  of  these,  the  gossips  of  the  day,  malignant  as 
always,  added  a  new  reason,  which  they  insisted  was  the 
predominant  one  —  the  ambition  of  his  wife.2 

Just  before  he  decided  upon  the  plunge,  the  Whigs  had 
been  assiduous  in  their  cultivation  of  him,  and  ardent  in 
their  expressions  of  sympathy  because  of  the  harsh  treatment 
accorded  him  by  his  old  friend  in  the  White  House.  One  of 
the  most  persistent  of  the  tempters  was  Clay's  intimate  and 
reflector,  R,  P.  Letcher,  Representative  from  Kentucky,  who 
had  maintained  the  most  constant  social  relations  with  the 
Whites  during  the  preceding  winter,  ingratiating  himself 
into  the  old  man's  confidence,  and  frequently  enjoying  the 
hospitality  of  his  home.  The  hollow  mockery  of  Letcher's 
attachment  appeared  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  written  a  little 
later,  in  which  he  galloped  over  the  gossip  of  the  capital,  and 
announced  that  "Judge  White  is  on  the  track  running  gaily, 
and  won't  come  off;  and  if  he  would,  his  wife  would  n't  let 
him."  3  A  more  suspicious  man  than  the  Tennessee  Senator 
might  have  found,  in  this,  evidence  of  treachery  and  duplic 
ity.  The  slur  on  Mrs.  White  was  resented  by  Blair,  in  a 
stinging  editorial  in  the  "Globe,"  but  his  excoriation  of 
Letcher  does  not  appear  to  have  given  White  a  more  favor 
able  impression  of  the  editor.4  The  intimation  regarding 
Mrs.  White  was  basely  false,  the  slur  wholly  unjustified. 

By  the  spring  of  1834,  White  had  announced  his  candidacy 

1  Clay's  Works,  v,  393-94.  2  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View. 

*  This  letter  was  published  in  the  Frankfort  Argus  and  copied  by  Blair  into  the 
Washington  Globe,  Nov.  28,  1835. 

*  Washington  Globe,  Nov.  30,  1835. 


426    PARTY  BATTLES  OP  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  the  gage  of  battle  was  thus  thrown  down  to  Jackson 
in  Tennessee,  which  became  the  battle-ground.  In  the  au 
tumn  of  that  year,  while  on  a  visit  to  the  Hermitage,  Jack 
son,  on  learning  of  the  partiality  of  many  for  the  Senator, 
had  entered  into  a  warm  defense  of  his  favorite,  ridiculed 
the  prospects  of  White  outside  his  own  State,  and,  in  more 
conciliatory  mood,  proposed  the  nomination  of  the  Tennes- 
seean  for  Vice-President  with  a  view  to  the  succession  on  the 
expiration  of  Van  Buren's  term.  Learning  of  these  inter 
views,  White  wrote  to  James  K.  Polk,  knowing  his  intimacy 
with  the  President,  inquiring  as  to  his  information  on  the 
presidential  position,  but  the  only  satisfaction  he  received 
was  a  warning  to  give  no  credence  to  any  such  gossip  unless 
from  an  unquestionable  source.1  But  if  Polk  was  not  then 
familiar  with  Jackson's  uncompromising  hostility  to  White's 
aspirations,  he  was  not  to  remain  long  in  doubt.  It  was  the 
plan  of  the  Jackson  organization  in  Tennessee,  led  by  Polk 
and  Felix  Grundy,  to  simulate  sympathy  with  the  Senator's 
ambition,  and  persuasively  lead  him  into  the  shambles  of  the 
Baltimore  Convention.  But  when  he  refused  to  go  passively 
to  the  slaughter,  and  a  meeting  of  the  Tennessee  congressional 
delegation  was  called  in  the  interest  of  his  candidacy,  Polk 
and  Grundy  refused  to  attend,  threw  off  the  mask,  and  de 
clared  open  war.  Thus  the  fight  was  extended  into  the  con 
gressional  elections  in  Tennessee  in  the  summer  of  1835, 
with  Polk  assuming  the  leadership  of  the  Administration 
forces,  taking  the  stump  in  opposition  to  White's  candidacy, 
and  throwing  the  weight  of  his  Nashville  paper  into  the  scale. 
Henceforth  Polk's  attitude  was  courageous.  He  would  be 
glad  to  see  a  son  of  Tennessee  elevated  to  the  Presidency  if 
it  could  be  done  in  regulation  manner  by  the  Democratic 
Party,  but  he  would  not  countenance  any  attempt  to  divide 
the  party  in  the  interest  of  the  Whigs.  The  National  Democ 
racy  favored  Van  Buren,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  Tennessee 
not  to  separate  from  the  party  in  the  Nation. 

1  Polk  to  White,  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  254. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION         427 

The  elections  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  White's  followers, 
with  casualties  among  Jackson's  congressional  followers,  but 
Polk  was  triumphantly  reflected,  and  he  redoubled  his  ef 
forts.  At  a  series  of  banquets  he  denounced  the  attempt  of 
Democrats  to  create  a  schism  in  the  face  of  the  common 
enemy.  But  immediately  afterwards  the  Legislature,  through 
the  adoption  of  resolutions,  formally  nominated  White  for 
the  Presidency. 

n 

ALTHOUGH  the  fame  of  Hugh  Lawson  White  has  been  ob 
scured  by  the  years,  he  was  familiarly  known  to  his  genera 
tion  as  "the  Cato  of  the  Senate."  Without  sparkle  or  mag 
netism,  the  purity  of  his  character,  the  soundness  of  his 
common  sense,  his  fidelity  to  duty,  and  assiduous  applica 
tion  commanded  respect  if  not  admiration.  His  senatorial 
speeches  were  noteworthy  because  of  their  temperate  tone  — 
rare  in  his  generation.  Clarity  and  strength  characterized 
his  every  utterance.  If  his  speeches  lacked  eloquence,  they 
smacked  of  statesmanship  and  substance.  No  member  of 
the  Senate  moi;e  impressively  looked  the  part.  Tall,  slender, 
and  well-proportioned,  with  a  broad  forehead  and  deep-set, 
serious,  penetrating  blue  eyes,  he  was  the  embodiment  of 
senatorial  dignity.  With  long  gray  hair,  brushed  back  from 
his  forehead,  and  curling  at  some  length  on  his  shoulders,  he 
appeared  the  patriarch.  In  repose,  he  was  sad  and  stern. 
Because  of  the  rarity  and  thoroughness  of  his  speeches,  he 
commanded  the  respect  and  confidence  of  his  colleagues. 
He  looked  upon  his  duties  with  the  solemnity  of  the  Roman 
Senator  of  the  noblest  period  of  the  Roman  Republic.  Al 
ways  heard  with  attention,  he  was  attentive  to  others,  and 
he  was  frequently  the  one  listener  to  an  uninteresting  speech. 
Even  in  familiar  conversation,  he  rarely  jested  outside  the 
domestic  circle,  and,  while  an  interesting  and  instructive 
conversationalist  about  his  own  fireside,  he  was  apt  to  be 


428    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

taciturn  and  retiring  in  company.  Had  fate  ordained  that 
he  should  have  reached  the  Presidency,  he  would  have  made 
a  safe,  conventional  Executive,  and  he  would  be  remembered 
as  a  pure,  patriotic  public  servant.  Such  was  the  man  who 
was  to  give  Jackson,  in  the  election  of  his  successor,  his  only 
uneasy  hours.  . 

ra 

THE  concern  of  the  Jackson  organization  over  White's  can 
didacy  may  be  read  in  the  persistency  of  Blair's  vigorous 
denunciations  in  the  "Washington  Globe."  Beginning  in 
the  early  spring  and  continuing  throughout  the  summer,  the 
Administration  organ  teemed  with  attacks  on  the  Tennessee 
Senator  and  his  most  ardent  champion,  John  Bell,  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  ill-advised  announce 
ment  of  White's  followers  that  his  candidacy  was  intended 
to  destroy  the  landmarks  of  party  gave  the  editor  his  cue. 
"This  artifice,"  wrote  Blair,  "has  been  so  frequently  at 
tempted,  and  in  vain,  by  those  seeking  to  divide  and  destroy 
the  Republican  [Democratic]  Party  in  this  country,  that  we 
would  have  supposed  the  design  would  not  have  been  con 
fessed  on  the  part  of  those  supporting  the  interests  of  a  man, 
who,  up  to  the  age  of  sixty,  at  least  has  made  it  his  boast  to 
support  his  party  firmly,  as  the  only  means  of  maintaining 
his  principles.  But  he  now  seeks  office  at  the  hands  of  the 
Opposition,  and  like  all  new  solicitors  for  the  favor  of  Feder 
alism,  becomes  a  no-party  man."  1  The  fact  that  White  had 
voted  with  the  Whigs  on  the  Fortifications  Bill  was  made 
the  text  of  many  discourses  on  the  questionable  character  of 
his  patriotism;  his  connection  with  Calhoun  offered  the  op 
portunity  to  picture  him  as  a  half-disguised  friend  of  Nulli 
fication.  The  encouragement  given  his  candidacy  by  the 
Whig  leaders  was  interpreted  as  a  desertion  of  the  house  of 
his  friends  to  do  the  work  of  the  enemy.  Tying  him  up  tightly 

1  Washington  Globe.  April  2,  1835. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        429 

with  the  Whigs  and  the  Nullifiers,  attacking  the  no-party 
idea  as  a  wooden  horse  of  Troy  in  which  discredited  Federal 
ism  planned  to  reenter  the  Capitol,  Blair  smote  the  Tennes- 
seean  hip  and  thigh  throughout  the  summer. 

But  scarcely  less  offensive  to  the  "Globe"  than  White 
was  John  Bell,  and  the  determination  of  the  organization  to 
prevent  his  reelection  to  the  Speakership  was  evident  in  the 
systematic  attacks  upon  his  record.  Beginning  in  May, 
and  continuing  through  the  summer,  there  was  scarcely  an 
issue  of  the  "Globe"  that  did  not  deal  with  some  phase  of 
Bell's  alleged  perfidy,  in  a  special  article.1  The  virulent  hos 
tility  to  Bell,  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  was  not  due  in  whole 
tjp  his  relations  with  the  candidacy  of  White.  Following  his 
election  over  Polk  to  the  Speakership,  Duff  Green,  in  the 
"Telegraph,"  ascribed  Folk's  defeat  to  his  support  by  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet,  and  described  "Kendall,  Blair,  and  Lewis 
parading  the  lobby"  in  attempts  to  drum  up  votes  for  their 
favorite.  This  had  been  bluntly  denied  by  Blair,  who  in 
sisted  that  he  had  spoken  to  no  one  on  the  Speakership,  and 
that  Lewis  was  "known  to  have  been  inclined  to  Mr.  Bell's 
election."  2  But  the  charge  in  the  "Telegraph"  had  been 
accepted  by  many  and  the  pride  of  the  Jackson  leaders  had 
been  aroused.  The  White  candidacy,  Bell's  espousal  of  it,  and 
Folk's  determined  stand  against  it,  made  it  imperative  that 
Bell  should  be  retired  in  the  interest  of  Polk. 

Meanwhile  the  Baltimore  Convention  assembled  on  May 
20,  1835  —  an  assembly  that  no  more  deserves  the  popular 
reproach  of  being  a  convention  of  office-holders  than  the 
average  convention  of  the  dominant  party  ever  since.  The 
absence  of  delegates  from  South  Carolina  and  Illinois  was 

1  May  28th,  "Mr.  Bell  and  the  Speakership";  May  30th,  "Mr.  Bell  and  Judge 
White";  June  1st,  "The  Bank  President  and  Mr.  Bell";  June  2d,  "Mr.  Bell  and 
the  Bank";  June  3d,  "Mr.  Bell  —  His  Banking  Facilities";  June  4th,  "The  Result 
of  Mr.  Bell's  Machinations";  July  3d,  "Bell  and  Gales";  July  10th,  "John  Bell  and 
Davy  Crockett";  August  21st,  "Mr.  Bell's  Preparation  to  Bargain  Off  Judge 
White's  Party  in  the  House  of  Representatives." 

8  Washington  Globe,  June  5,  1834. 


430    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

tolerable  to  the  Jacksonians,  but  the  failure  of  Tennessee  to 
appear,  notwithstanding  the  personal  importunities  of  the 
President,  was  painfully  embarrassing.  That  had  to  be  cor 
rected.  A  comparatively  unknown  Tennesseean,  E.  Rucker, 
was  found  in  the  city,  and  literally  pushed  into  the  conven 
tion  to  cast  the  unauthorized  vote  of  Tennessee  —  and 
thus  the  word  "Ruckerize"  was  added  to  the  vocabulary 
of  practical  politicians.  The  polished  Andrew  Stevenson, 
who  had  resigned  the  Speakership  to  accept  the  diplomatic 
post  in  London,  only  to  share  the  fate  of  Van  Buren,  was 
called  upon  to  deliver  the  "keynote"  address  in  the  capacity 
of  chairman.  But  this  honor,  bestowed  upon  the  Virginians, 
was  more  than  neutralized  by  New  York's  desertion  of  her 
Virginia  allies  in  the  nomination  of  the  vice-presidential  can 
didate. 

Never  had  the  Old  Dominion  been  dominated  by  a  more 
powerful  machine  than  that  led  by  Judge  Spencer  Roane, 
a  man  of  great  intellectual  force,  who  had  been  favored  by 
Jefferson  for  the  Chief  Justiceship.  He  had  a  powerful  col 
league  in  his  cousin,  Thomas  Ritchie,  the  forceful  editor  of 
the  "Richmond  Enquirer."  Stevenson  was  an  important 
member  of  the  clique,  and  no  one  was  closer  to  its  leader  than 
the  scholarly  Senator  William  C.  Rives,  who  had,  as  Jackson's 
first  Minister  to  France,  negotiated  the  indemnity  settlement. 
The  Virginians  had  early  pledged  themselves  to  the  political 
fortunes  of  Van  Buren.  The  alliance  of  the  two  States,  Vir 
ginia  and  New  York,  was  one  of  the  significant  facts  in  the 
politics  of  the  day.  Never  doubting  the  loyalty  of  their  ally, 
Roane  and  his  organization  determined  to  dictate  the  nomi 
nation  of  Rives  for  the  Vice-Presidency  with  a  view  to  the 
succession.  It  was  not  until  the  eve  of  the  convention  that 
the  Virginians  learned,  to  their  dismay,  that  the  New  Yorkers 
had  other  plans.  Almost  incredulous,  chagrined,  disturbed, 
Ritchie  hastened  to  write  Rives  of  the  new  developments. 
He  had  heard  that  "some  of  our  strongest  friends  in  Wash- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        431 

ington"  were  looking  with  favor  on  Richard  M.  Johnson  of 
Kentucky.  Van  Buren's  preference  was  a  mystery.  How 
ever,  Ritchie  had  been  pressing  Rives's  claims  and  had 
written  letters,  not  only  to  delegates,  but  to  "a  gentleman 
in  Washington,  who  can,  if  he  thinks  fit,  exercise  a  sort  of 
potential  voice."  But  unhappily  for  the  Virginians,  Lewis, 
Kendall,  Blair,  Silas  Wright,  and  Hill  were  opportunists, 
with  their  eyes  upon  the  West,  in  view  of  the  candidacy  of 
both  Harrison  and  White.  It  was  clear  to  them  that  expedi 
ency  demanded  the  nomination  of  a  Westerner  for  the  Vice- 
Presidency.  The  stubborn,  and  now  thoroughly  ^outraged, 
Virginians  refused  to  acquiesce  in  the  reasoning  of  the 
Kitchen  Cabinet,  and  Rives  went  down  before  the  first  of 
the  "steam  rollers"  that  have  become  so  commonplace  in 
national  conventions.1  Thoroughly  disgusted  by  what  they 
conceived  to  be  a  betrayal,  the  Virginia  organization  declared 
open  war  on  Johnson,  and  Van  Buren  was  much  perturbed. 
But  that  wily  diplomat,  assisted  by  Silas  Wright,  immedi 
ately  took  personal  charge  of  the  work  of  conciliation,  writ 
ing  numerous  letters  to  Rives  and  Ritchie,  and  the  storm 
was  stilled  for  the  time  when  Van  Buren  made  a  journey  to 
Castle  Hill,  the  country  home  of  the  defeated  candidate, 
where  the  fatted  calf  was  killed  and  the  leaders  of  the  Roane 
organization  were  invited  to  participate  in  the  feast  and  to 
accept  the  apologies  and  pledges  of  the  presidential  nominee. 

IV 

MEANWHILE  the  Whigs  were  in  a  quandary  as  to  what  to  do, 
with  their  greatest  popular  leader,  noting  a  tendency  to  set 
him  aside,  spending  the  summer  at  Ashland  in  bitterness  of 
soul.  In  a  letter  written  in  July  he  had  unbosomed  himself 
to  a  friend,  with  the  confession  that  he  had  thought  it  prob 
able  that  his  party  would  again  turn  to  him,  but  had  noted 
a  tendency  to  "discourage  the  use  of  my  name."  In  Ohio, 

1  Ambler's  Thomas  Ritchie,  170. 


432    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

where  he  was  popular,  the  Legislature  had  discredited  his 
possible  candidacy  by  its  endorsement  of  Justice  McLean. 
In  the  spirit  of  an  Achilles  sulking  in  his  tent,  he  discussed 
the  various  names  canvassed,  pointing  out  their  weaknesses. 
White  would  be  intolerable  as  a  Whig  candidate  because 
"he  has  been  throughout  a  supporter  of  the  Jackson  Admin 
istration  and  holds  no  principle,  except  in  the  matter  of 
patronage,  as  to  public  measures,  in  common  with  the 
Whigs."  While  he  thought  Webster's  attainments  greatly 
superior  to  those  of  any  other  candidate,  "it  is  to  be  regretted 
that  a  general  persuasion  seems  to  exist  that  he  stands  no 
chance."  Harrison  was  damned  with  the  faint  praise  that  he 
"could  easier  obtain  the  vote  of  Kentucky  than  any  other 
candidate  named."  The  only  rift  in  the  clouds  that  he  could 
see  was  in  the  nomination  of  three  candidates,  with  White  as 
one  of  the  three,  to  draw  off  the  Democratic  strength  in  the 
South  and  portions  of  the  West,  and  the  defeat  of  Van  Buren 
by  thus  throwing  the  contest  into  the  House.1  That  this  plan 
was  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  Whigs  is  shown  in  a  letter 
to  Clay  from  James  Barbour  of  Virginia,  in  August.  Be 
cause  of  the  slavery  question,  he  thought  WThite  the  strong 
est  candidate  to  be  pressed  against  Van  Buren  in  Virginia. 
Webster  was  out  of  the  question.  McLean,  not  even  con 
sidered.  Harrison,  after  White,  would  make  the  strongest 
appeal.  "It  seems  to  me,"  he  continued,  "that  we  have  no 
prospect  of  excluding  Van  Buren  but  by  the  plan  you  suggest, 
of  selecting  two  candidates  who  will  be  the  strongest  in  their 
respective  sections.  White,  I  apprehend,  for  the  South, 
Webster  for  the  East,  North  and  West,  or  whomsoever  Penn 
sylvania  prefers."  2  Thus,  in  the  correspondence  of  the  Whig 
leaders,  we  have  the  proof  that  White  was  intrigued  into 
the  race  by  the  Whigs  with  the  view  to  furthering  their  own 
interest,  and  not  his. 

By  September,  Clay,  having  met  Harrison  in  Cincinnati, 
1  Clay's  Works,  v,  393-95.  z  Ibid.,  397-99. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION         433 

and  finding  him  "respectful  and  cordial,"  was  more  cordial 
toward  his  candidacy,  although  he  preferred  any  choice 
Pennsylvania  might  announce.  The  Rhode  Island  and  Con 
necticut  elections  had  shown  that  "it  is  in  vain  to  look  even 
to  New  England  for  the  support  of  Mr.  Webster."  1  Out  of 
this  confusion  of  counsels,  Harrison  ultimately  emerged  with 
the  general  support  of  the  Whigs,  but,  like  the  Democrats, 
the  Whigs  were  to  be  embarrassed  by  a  double  tail  to  their 
ticket.  With  the  popular  sentiment  favoring  Tyler,  the 
politicians,  with  their  eyes  on  the  Anti-Masons,  nominated 
Granger.  It  was  the  contention  of  contemporaries  that  Clay, 
who  had  engineered  the  move  against  Tyler,  feared  that 
the  concentration  of  the  Whigs  on  some  strong  candidate  for 
the  Vice-Presidency  might  result  in  his  election  with  Van 
Buren,  because  of  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Virginia  Whigs 
with  Johnson;  and  that  a  Whig  Vice-President,  under  a 
Democratic  President,  would  become  a  formidable  rival  for 
the  presidential  nomination  in  1840. 2  Both  Tyler  and 
Granger,  however,  remained  in  the  field,  thus  dividing  the 
vote  in  the  election. 

The  Massachusetts  Whigs,  nothing  daunted  by  the  turn 
of  affairs,  remained  faithful  to  Webster,  who  was  placed  in 
the  field;  and  in  South  Carolina,  where  Calhoun's  followers 
made  a  point  of  separating  themselves  from  all  parties  and 
all  other  States,  Senator  Willie  P.  Mangum  was  nominated. 
Thus,  in  the  campaign  of  1836  there  were  five  candidates, 
with  the  Democrats  united  behind  Van  Buren,  and  the  Oppo 
sition  dividing  its  strength  between  Harrison,  White,  Web 
ster,  and  Mangum.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  to  the 
liking  of  the  Democracy.  It  entered  the  campaign  in  solid 
ranks  except  in  Tennessee,  where  even  the  magic  name  of 
Jackson  was  unable  to  prevent  a  schism  which  was  to  result 
in  the  humiliation  of  the  venerable  chief. 

1  Clay's  Works,  v,  399.  *  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  519. 


434    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

V 

DURING  the  summer  of  1835  the  militant  methods  of  the 
Abolitionists  forced  the  slavery  question  to  the  front  to  the 
embarrassment  of  the  politicians  and  the  candidates.  The 
Nation  was  still  on  edge  because  of  the  anti-slavery  and  anti- 
abolition  riots  of  the  year  before,  when  George  Thompson, 
the  Abolition  firebrand  from  England,  arrived  in  America 
with  exhortations  to  the  Northerners  to  end  slavery  at  once. 
The  South  was  outraged,  the  North,  shocked.  Coincident 
with  Thompson's  mad  crusade,  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  having  collected  a  large  sum  of  money  for  the  pur 
pose,  began  to  circularize  the  country,  and  especially  the 
South,  with  literature  calculated  to  arouse  the  slaves  to 
insurrection.1  The  defense  of  the  abolitionists  was  that 
the  literature  was  sent  to  the  whites  alone;  but  much  of  it 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  blacks,  and  excitement  reached 
fever  heat.  In  Philadelphia  a  pouch  of  these  tracts  was 
confiscated  by  a  mob,  and  sunk  in  the  Delaware  River.  In 
Charleston  the  mail  was  searched  for  them,  and  three 
thousand  citizens  assembled  at  night  to  witness  their  de 
struction  in  a  bonfire.  Mass  meetings  were  held  in  all  the 
larger  Northern  cities  to  denounce  the  desperate  enter 
prise  of  the  abolitionists,  and  in  Boston  the  citizens  packed 
Faneuil  Hall  to  hear  Harrison  Gray  Otis  denounce  them  in 
a  spirited  address.  When  Thompson,  in  one  of  his  inflam 
matory  speeches,  proposed  that  the  slaves  should  arise  and 
cut  their  masters'  throats,  the  bitterness  in  the  North  was 
as  pronounced  as  in  the  South,  and  after  Garrison  had 
narrowly  escaped  the  rope  through  the  intercession  of  the 
Mayor  of  Boston,  whom  he  had  scathingly  attacked  in  his 
paper,  the  English  orator  went  into  hiding  until  he  could 
be  spirited  out  of  the  country.  The  most  important  effect 
of  this  miserable  blunder  of  the  abolitionists  was  to  force 
1  John  Quincy  Adams  could  see  no  other  object. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        435 

the  slavery  question  into  politics,  and  from  that  hour 
on,  the  slave-owners  of  the  South  became  dominant  in  the 
politics  of  the  Republic. 

It  is  certain  that  Jackson,  like  all  other  responsible  leaders, 
abhorred  these  appeals  to  the  slaves  to  rise  and  cut  their 
masters'  throats.  The  burden  of  dealing  with  an  important 
phase  of  the  problem,  the  transmission  of  such  matter  through 
the  mail,  fell  upon  the  Administration,  and  in  the  absence  of 
any  law  to  prevent  it.  But  when  the  postmasters  of  New 
York  and  Charleston  wrote  Postmaster-General  Kendall  for 
instructions,  that  astute  politician  replied  that  the  United 
States  should  not  carry  such  matter  in  the  mail;  and,  acting 
upon  the  hint,  the  postmasters  threw  all  such  matter  out 
with  the  tacit  consent  of  the  Government. 

The  Opposition,  however,  planned  to  turn  the  hatred  of 
the  abolitionists  against  Van  Buren,  who  was  hostile  to  the 
extension  of  slavery.  Writing  to  Clay  in  the  late  summer  of 
1835,  Senator  B  arbour  rejoiced  in  the  injection  of  the  slavery 
question  as  certain  to  injure  the  Democratic  nominee.1  The 
close  political  associates  of  Van  Buren  were  keenly  alive  to 
the  danger,  and  John  Forsyth  wrote  him  that  unless  some 
thing  should  be  done  in  New  York  he  "  should  not  be  at  all 
surprised  at  a  decisive  movement  to  establish  a  Southern 
Confederacy,"  and  suggested  that  "a  portion  of  the  Magi 
cian's  skill  is  required  in  this  matter  .  .  .  and  the  sooner 
you  set  the  imps  to  work  the  better."  2  Whether  the  wily 
politician  "set  the  imps  to  work"  we  do  not  know,  but  within 
a  month  of  the  writing  of  the  letter  the  New  York  postmaster 
publicly  announced  that  he  would  refuse  to  forward  the 
objectionable  literature.  This  was  given  the  widest  publicity; 
so,  too,  the  letter  of  Amos  Kendall  accepting  and  endorsing 
the  action  of  the  New  York  official.  And  about  the  same 
time,  whether  due  to  the  Van  Buren  "  imps  "  or  not,  one  of  the 

1  Clay's  Works,  v,  378. 

8  Forsyth  to  Van  Buren,  Butler's  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years,  78,  79. 


436    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

greatest  meetings  ever  held  in  New  York  was  held  in  the  park 
to  denounce  the  methods  of  the  abolitionists.  Nothing  was 
done  by  Van  Buren  personally,  in  a  public  way,  to  divorce 
himself  from  all  sympathy  with  the  abolition  movement. 

The  Whig  nominee,  determined  publicly  to  repudiate  the 
abolition  methods,  found  an  opportunity  at  a  dinner  in  his 
honor  at  Vincennes,  Indiana,  in  a  speech  intended  as  a 
friendly  gesture  to  the  slave-holding  States,  and  for  the  cul 
tivation  of  such  of  those  in  Virginia  as  were  prone  to  as 
sociate  Van  Buren  with  the  abolition  sentiment  in  portions 
of  New  York.1  The  position  of  White  was  as  clearly  fixed 
on  slavery  as  that  of  Calhoun,  and  we  shall  observe  a  little 
later  how  the  latter  sought  to  place  Van  Buren  in  a  position 
hostile  to  Southern  interests. 

VI 

MEANWHILE  Van  Buren  serenely  went  his  way,  undisturbed 
by  the  storm,  and  in  the  best  of  humor.  Soon  after  the  Bal 
timore  Convention,  the  most  unconventional  campaign  biog 
raphy  ever  published  in  America  was  issued  by  a  Philadel 
phia  publishing  house  and  given  an  extensive  circulation. 
The  present  generation  scarcely  realizes  that  there  were  two 
Davy  Crocketts  —  the  man  of  the  woods  and  the  fight,  and 
the  less  admirable  creature  who  made  a  rather  sorry  figure  in 
the  Congress.  It  was  the  latter  who  was  persuaded  to  write 
a  part,  and  to  father  all,  of  this  scurrilous  biography  of  Van 
Buren,  although  it  is  generally  accepted  that  Hugh  Lawson 
WThite,  the  man  of  ponderous  dignity  and  lofty  ideals,  was 
the  man  behind  this  questionable  literary  venture.2  The  per 
sonal  references  to  Van  Buren  are  crudely  and  coarsely  of 
fensive  throughout. 

"He  is  about  fifty  years  old,"  he  wrote,  "and  notwith 
standing  his  baldness,  which  reaches  all  around  and  half 

1  See  Montgomery's  Life  of  Harrison,  308-10. 

8  This  is  Shepard's  view  in  his  Life  of  Van  Buren,  256. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        437 

down  his  head,  like  a  white  pitch  plaster,  leaving  a  few 
white  floating  locks,  he  is  only  three  years  older  than  I  am. 
His  face  is  a  good  deal  shriveled,  and  he  looks  sorry,  not 
for  anything  he  has  gained,  but  what  he  may  lose."  1  In 
describing  his  subject's  mental  operations,  he  found  that 
"his  mind  beats  round,  like  a  tame  bear  tied  to  a  stake,  in  a 
little  circle,  hardly  bigger  than  the  circumference  of  the  head 
in  which  it  is  placed,  seeking  no  other  object  than  to  convert 
the  Government  into  an  instrument  to  serve  himself  or  his 
office-holding  friends."  2 

In  explaining  Van  Buren's  rise,  the  hero  of  young  Texas 
proceeded:  "He  has  become  a  great  man  without  any 
reason  for  it,  and  so  have  I.  He  has  been  nominated  for 
President  without  the  least  pretensions;  and  so  have  I. 
But  here  the  similarity  stops.  From  his  cradle  he  was  on 
the  non-committal  tribe.  I  never  was.  He  had  always  two 
ways  to  do  a  thing;  I  never  had  but  one.  He  was  generally 
half  bent;  I  tried  to  be  as  straight  as  a  gun  barrel.  He  could 
not  bear  his  rise;  I  never  minded  mine.  He  forgot  all  his 
old  associates  because  they  were  poor  folks;  I  stuck  to  the 
people  that  made  me."  3 

And  in  a  superb  bit  of  demagogy,  Crockett  described 
Van  Buren  as  traveling  through  the  country  in  an  English 
coach  with  "English  servants  dressed  in  uniform  —  I 
think  they  call  it  livery";  refusing  to  mix  "with  the  sons  of 
the  little  tavern-keepers,"  forgetting  "his  old  companions 
and  friends  in  the  humbler  walks  of  life";  eating  "in  a  room 
by  himself,"  and  carrying  himself  "so  stiff  in  his  gait  and 
prim  in  his  dress,  that  he  was  what  the  English  call  a  Dandy." 
The  reader  was  assured  that  "when  he  enters  the  Senate 
Chamber  in  the  morning,  he  struts  and  swaggers  like  a  crow 
in  a  gutter,"  that  he  "is  laced  up  in  corsets  such  as  women 
in  town  wear,  and  if  possible  tighter  than  the  best  of  them." 
Indeed,  Crockett  found  it  "difficult  to  tell  from  his  personal 

1  Crockett's  Life  of  Van  Buren,  26.  2  /^i§  58.  >  Ibid.,  27. 


438    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

appearance  whether  he  was  a  man  or  a  woman."  1  The  Eaton 
scandal  was  salaciously  served  anew,  the  fight  between  Jack 
son  and  Benton  was  described  in  detail,  and,  unfortunately 
for  his  candidate  for  President,  a  chapter  was  devoted  to  a 
hot  defense  of  White  on  the  Bank  and  on  the  Fortifications 
Bill. 

The  book,  now  happily  forgotten,  is  only  interesting  and 
historically  important  in  indicating  the  tone  of  the  political 
contests  of  the  time,  and  the  scurrility  of  the  attacks  on  Van 
Buren  in  the  campaign.  If  the  Little  Magician  enjoyed  the 
queer  concoction,  it  was  not  without  the  realization  of  its 
possibility  for  doing  harm.  At  any  rate,  a  little  later,  another 
and  a  friendly  biography  by  Holland  was  published,  seriously 
reviewing  Van  Buren's  public  career.  While  not  written  in 
bad  taste,  it  aroused  the  ire  of  John  Quincy  Adams  who  took 
the  time  to  read  it.  "A  mere  partisan  electioneering  work," 
he  wrote  in  his  diary.  "  Van  Buren's  personal  character  bears, 
however,  a  stronger  resemblance  to  that  of  Mr.  Madison 
than  to  that  of  Mr.  Jefferson.  These  are  both  remarkable  for 
their  extreme  caution  in  avoiding  and  averting  personal  colli 
sions.  Van  Buren,  like  the  Sosie  of  Moliere's  'Amphitryon,* 
is  Tami  de  tout  le  monde.'  This  is  perhaps  the  secret  of  his 
great  success  in  public  life,  and  especially  against  the  com 
petitors  with  whom  he  is  now  struggling  for  the  last  step 
on  the  ladder  of  his  ambition  —  Henry  Clay  and  John  C. 
Calhoun.  They,  indeed,  are  left  upon  the  field  for  dead; 
and  men  of  straw,  Hugh  L.  White,  William  Henry  Harrison, 
and  Daniel  Webster,  are  thrust  forward  in  their  places. 
Neither  of  these  has  a  principle  to  lean  upon."  2 

If  these  intrigues  and  attacks  disturbed  Van  Buren  in 
the  least,  he  gave  no  sign.  During  a  ten-day  sojourn  in 
New  York  in  October,  Philip  Hone,  who  vainly  sought  an 
open  date  to  entertain  him  at  dinner,  found  "his  outward 
appearance  like  the  unruffled  surface  of  the  majestic  river 

1  Crockett's  Life  of  Van  Buren,  80.  2  Adams's  Diary,  April  13,  1835. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        439 

which  covers  rocks  and  whirlpools,  but  shows  no  marks  of 
the  agitation  beneath."  1  In  this  same  good  temper,  he 
faced  the  ordeal  of  presiding  over  the  Senate,  dominated 
by  his  political  foes,  in  the  long  session  preceding  the  elec 
tion.  We  shall  here  find  him  threading  his  way  among  pit 
falls  provided  by  his  enemies  with  such  skill  as  to  conceal 
all  effort. 

vn 

THE  halls  of  Congress  in  the  session  of  December,  1835,  were 
used  as  the  hustings,  and  there,  largely,  the  presidential 
battle  was  fought.  The  first  blow  was  struck  by  the  Jack- 
sonians  in  the  election  of  Polk  to  the  Speakership,  over  Bell. 
The  latter  was  a  man  of  much  capacity,  considered  by  Van 
Buren  as  the  intellectual  superior  of  White,  and  he  had  been 
elected  to  the  Speakership,  on  the  resignation  of  Stevenson, 
through  a  combination  of  the  Whigs  and  anti-Administra 
tion  Democrats.  In  seeking  a  reconciliation  with  the  Jack- 
sonians,  he  had  hinted  at  a  desire  for  a  confidential  confer 
ence  with  Van  Buren,  and  the  two  were  finally  invited  to 
dine  with  a  mutual  friend.  Unhappily  for  Bell,  a  severe  tooth 
ache,  real  or  diplomatic,  forced  the  candidate  of  the  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy  to  retire  the  moment  the  ladies  left  the 
table.  When  a  few  days  later  the  two  found  themselves  to 
gether  on  the  speakers'  rostrum  on  the  occasion  of  the  de 
livery  of  Adams's  oration  on  Lafayette,  Bell  had  attempted 
to  discuss  the  differences  of  the  factions,  but  the  canny  Red 
Fox  "put  a  civil  end  to  the  conversation  with  a  few  general 
remarks  in  regard  to  the  duty  the  friends  of  Judge  White 
owed  "  to  the  party,  and  soon  afterward  the  Tennessee  Sena 
tor  had  entered  the  field,  and  Bell  was  forced  to  espouse  his 
cause.2  Thus  the  course  of  history  may  have  been  changed 
by  the  toothache  of  a  politician.  At  any  rate,  it  was  enough, 
to  the  Jacksonian  leaders,  to  know  that  Polk  had  risked  his 
1  Hone's  Dimy,  Oct.  26,  1835.  a  Van  Buren's  Autobiography,  225-26,  n. 


440    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

popularity  and  future  by  taking  the  offensive  in  favor  of 
Van  Buren,  and  he  was  rewarded  with  the  Speakership. 

The  Whigs  instantly  accepted  the  challenge  by  bitterly 
opposing  the  confirmation  of  Roger  B.  Taney  as  Chief  Justice 
of  the  United  States.  No  one  questioned  his  professional 
ability  or  his  eminent  fitness  for  a  high  judicial  position. 
Bitterly  hostile  as  he  was  to  Jackson's  Bank  policy,  John 
Marshall  had  recognized  Taney 's  qualifications  for  the  bench 
when  the  President  had  previously  made  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  elevate  his  former  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
that  tribunal.  At  that  time  the  venerable  Chief  Justice  had 
quietly  interested  himself  in  his  successor's  behalf,  and  among 
the  papers  of  Senator  Leigh,  still  in  possession  of  the  family, 
is  the  brief  but  significant  note  from  Marshall:  "If  you  have 
not  made  up  your  mind  on  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Taney,  I 
have  received  some  information  in  his  favor  which  I  would 
wish  to  communicate."  l  %  But  after  Marshall's  death  and 
Taney 's  appointment,  the  Whig  and  pro-Bank  politicians 
attempted  to  array  all  the  late  jurist's  friends  and  admirers 
against  the  confirmation  by  picturing  Jackson  as  not  only 
hostile  to  the  trend  of  his  decisions,  but  to  the  perpetuation 
of  his  memory.  The  "Richmond  Whig"  announced  that  "he 
[Jackson]  thinks  undue  honors  have  been  rendered  to  the 
memory  of  General  Marshall,  and  predicts  that  the  attempt 
to  build  a  monument  to  his  memory  in  Washington  will  fail." 
This  was  a  willful  perversion  of  a  comment  actually  made 
to  the  editor  of  the  "Southern  Literary  Messenger"  at  Rip 
Raps,  that,  in  view  of  Jackson's  inability  to  interest  Congress 
in  an  appropriation  for  a  monument  to  Washington,  he  was 
afraid  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  build  one  to  Marshall.2 
But  the  idea  of  the  fighting  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  the 
seat  of  Marshall  was  maddening  to  the  Whig  leaders,  and 

1  Tyler's  Life  of  Taney. 

2  Blair  gives  the  details  of  the  conversation,  in  which  he  participated,  in  the 
Globe  of  August  12,  183*. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION 

the  nomination  was  attacked  with  intemperance  and  even 
scurrility  by  both  Webster  and  Clay,  and  it  was  not  until 
in  March,  three  months  after  the  nomination  was  sent  to 
the  Senate,  that  it  was  confirmed. 

But  the  appearance  of  resolutions  from  legislatures,  in 
structing  Whig  and  pro-Bank  Senators  to  vote  to  expunge 
the  resolution  of  censure  against  Jackson,  was  the  most  bitter 
pill  of  all.  Not  only  did  it  further  embitter  the  Whigs  against 
the  Administration,  but  it  put  them  at  loggerheads  with  each 
other.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  Whig  Senators  from 
Virginia,  Tyler  and  Leigh,  who  took  opposite  views  as  to  the 
inviolability  of  instructions.  Throughout  his  entire  career, 
Tyler  had  stoutly  insisted  upon  the  right  of  the  people, 
speaking  through  their  legislatures,  to  instruct  their  repre 
sentatives  in  the  Senate.  This  position  had  been  adopted  by 
the  Virginia  Whigs,  and  accepted  by  the  people  of  the  State. 
Because  of  this,  Leigh  now  sat  in  the  Senate,  in  the  seat  from 
which  Rives  had  been  instructed.  But  when  a  resolution  was 
introduced  in  the  Virginia  Assembly,  instructing  the  Sena 
tors  from  that  State  to  vote  to  expunge,  the  Whigs  began  to 
divide  on  the  question  of  compliance  in  the  event  of  its  adop 
tion.  There  was  never  any  question  as  to  the  attitude  of 
John  Tyler.  Pilloried  in  history  as  a  second-rate  politician 
and  a  weakling,  it  is  impossible  to  study  his  career  without 
being  impressed  with  his  consistency,  which  was  all  too  rare 
in  his  generation,  and  the  unfaltering  courage  with  which  he 
lived  up  to  his  principles,  regardless  of  the  effect  upon  his 
personal  fortunes.  But  Leigh,  who  owed  his  seat  in  the 
Senate  to  the  principle  of  instructions,  was  made  of  less 
heroic  clay.  With  the  encouragement  of  Virginians,  includ 
ing  Judge  Brooke,  who  always  reflected  the  views  of  Henry 
Clay,  he  began  to  hedge.  Senator  Barbour,  another  of  Clay's 
intimates,  urged  upon  Tyler  sophisticated  reasons  for  ignor 
ing  the  instructions.1  When  the  resolutions  were  adopted  in 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  I,  527. 


442    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  lower  branch  of  the  legislature,  the  pressure  of  the  Whigs 
to  ignore  them  met  with  a  gracious  yielding  on  the  part  of 
Leigh,  and  the  unscrupulous  partisans  were  able  to  concen 
trate  their  efforts  on  Tyler.  Such  was  the  logic  of  party 
bigotry  in  1836  that  the  Maryland  Legislature,  which  had 
nominated  Tyler  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  threatened  to  re 
scind  the  nomination  if  he  complied  with  the  instructions,  and 
the  future  President,  the  truckling,  tricky  politician  of  his 
torical  caricature,  expressed  his  disgust  in  a  letter  to  his  son : 
"These  incidents  look  almost  like  a  political  romance  in  these 
days  when  everything  is  surrendered  for  office.  .  .  .  Give  me 
the  assurance  that  history  will  do  me  justice  .  .  .  and  I  will 
go  to  my  grave  in  peace." 1  When  the  resolution  was  passed  by 
both  branches,  and  certified  to  the  two  Senators,  Tyler,  with 
out  a  moment's  hesitation,  resigned  in  a  dignified  letter  to 
Van  Buren,  and  retired  to  private  life.  Leigh  ignored  the  in 
structions  and  retained  his  seat,  but  resigned  in  July.  This 
contradiction  sadly  crippled  the  Whigs  in  Virginia;  and 
when,  during  the  spring,  a  dinner  was  given  the  two  Sena 
tors  by  their  fellow  partisans,  and  Tyler  was  lauded  for  his 
act,  the  spicy  Thomas  Ritchie,  of  the  "Richmond  Enquirer," 
insisted  that  two  of  the  toasts  were: 

"John  Tyler:  Honor  to  him,  because  he  could  not,  with 
honor,  retain  his  seat." 

"Senator  Leigh:  Honor  to  him,  because  he  could  not,  with 
honor,  relinquish  his  seat." 

Thus  Tyler  passed  from  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition  in 
the  Senate,  and  William  C.  Rives,  the  friend  of  Jackson  and 
Van  Buren,  vindicated  by  events,  returned  to  strengthen  the 
forces  of  the  Administration. 

The  attitude  of  Ewing  of  Ohio  toward  similar  resolutions 
by  the  legislature  of  his  State  was  that  of  Leigh.2 

All  these  manifestations  of  popular  approval  of  the  Admin- 

1  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers,  i,  537. 

2  Cong.  Globe,  1st  Session,  24th  Congress,  308. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        443 

istration,  and  dissatisfaction  with  the  Whigs  and  their  allies 
in  the  Senate,  tended  to  infuriate  the  Opposition  which 
found  itself  helpless  before  the  tide.  In  Tennessee,  how 
ever,  the  Administration  was  unable  to  secure  instructions 
aimed  at  White,  and  the  attempt  merely  furnished  the  oppor 
tunity  for  laudatory  speeches  on  the  Tennessee  Senator, 
and  bitter  denunciations  of  the  proposal  to  expunge.  This 
defeat  in  Tennessee  was  the  only  hopeful  sign  that  reached 
the  Whigs  in  Washington.1 

The  greater  part  of  the  congressional  session  was  devoted 
to  some  phase  of  the  abolition  agitation,  and  Calhoun  bent 
all  his  efforts  toward  arraying  the  North  and  South  against 
each  other.  He  seemed  determined  to  have  it  that  the  North 
ern  people  were  in  sympathy  with  the  methods  and  purposes 
of  the  radical  followers  of  Garrison.  The  mobs  that  had  all 
but  lynched  Garrison,  and  forced  the  friends  of  Thompson 
to  spirit  him  away,  were  Northern  mobs.  If  the  obnoxious 
literature  had  been  burned  by  the  people  of  Charleston,  it 
had  been  thrown  into  the  river  by  the  people  of  Philadelphia 
and  denounced  by  the  people  of  Boston.  No  Northern  states 
man  or  politician  had  raised  a  voice  in  defense  of  the  aboli 
tionists,  and  most  of  them  vied  with  Calhoun  in  their  de 
nunciation  of  them.  But  when,  on  January  7th,  an  abolition 
petition  was  presented,  and  Calhoun  moved  that  it  be  not 
received  and  supported  his  motion  in  an  intemperate  speech, 
some  of  the  most  pronounced  pro-slavery  Senators  took 
alarm.  The  great  Nullifier  declared  that  an  irrepressible  fight 
had  been  forced  and  should  be  met.  "We  must  meet  the 
enemy  on  the  frontier  —  on  the  question  of  receiving,"  he 
said,  "We  must  secure  that  important  pass  —  it  is  our 
Thermopylae.  The  power  of  resistance,  by  the  universal  law, 
is  on  the  exterior.  Break  through  the  shell,  penetrate  the 
crust,  and  there  is  no  resistance  within."  When,  four  days 

1  For  story  of  the  attempt  see  Foster's  letter  to  White,  Mcr.wir  of  Hugh  Lawson 
White,  337-38. 


444    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

later,  Buchanan  presented  a  petition  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  moved  that  it  be 
received  and  rejected,  Calhoun  demanded  that  the  question 
be  put  first  on  receiving,  and  a  debate  was  precipitated  which 
dragged  along  for  weary  weeks,  ending  in  the  defeat  of  Cal- 
houn's  plan. 

During  the  period  of  these  intermittent  discussions, 
the  "Telegraph,"  reflector  of  Calhoun,  teemed  with  articles 
bitterly  attacking,  not  so  much  the  abolitionists  as  the 
North.  This  determination  to  treat  the  Northerners  as  ene 
mies  of  Southern  institutions  was  so  apparent  that  a  number 
of  pro-slavery  Southern  Senators  were  moved  to  protest  and 
to  criticism  of  the  Southern  leader.  Whether  he  was  actuated, 
that  early,  by  a  desire  to  lay  the  foundation  for  a  Southern 
Confederacy,  or  merely  used  this  method  to  create  feeling  in 
the  Southern  States  against  the  candidacy  of  Van  Buren, 
can  never  be  determined.  But  the  Democrats  supporting 
Van  Buren  had  no  doubt  that  the  latter  was  the  dominating 
motive.  The  sharp-tongued  Isaac  Hill,  of  New  Hampshire, 
in  a  fierce  assault  on  Calhoun 's  position,  directly  charged 
that  the  "  Telegraph  "  had  been  exerting  itself  from  the  time 
of  the  Nullification  movement  to  drive  a  wedge  between  the 
sections,  and  warned  Calhoun  that  the  agitation  he  was  forcing 
on  Congress  played  directly  into  the  hands  of  the  abolitionists. 
But  the  latter  had  determined  upon  his  course,  and  appeared 
not  only  willing,  but  anxious,  actually  to  break  with  the 
friends  of  the  South  among  the  Northerners  in  Congress. 

If  he  expected,  however,  in  his  fight  against  receiving  the 
petitions,  to  prove  Van  Buren  hostile  to  the  interest  of  the 
South,  he  failed.  The  ten  votes  he  mustered  were  recruited 
from  both  parties.  Five  were  Whigs,1  three  were  Democrats 
supporting  the  Administration,2  and  two  were  against  the 

1  Black  of  Mississippi;  Leigh  of  Virginia;  Nicholas  and  Porter  of  Louisiana;  and 
Preston  of  South  Carolina. 

2  Cuthbert,  Moore,  and  Walker. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        445 

Administration  and  hostile  to  Van  Buren.1  Thus,  with  the 
exception  of  three  Senators,  all  the  supporters  of  Van  Buren 
and  the  Administration  voted  to  receive  the  petitions.  The 
vote  of  White  was  unquestionably  political,  intended  to 
strengthen  his  candidacy  among  the  pro-slavery  radicals 
of  the  Southern  States. 

But  Calhoun  was  not  discouraged.  His  political  motive 
was  more  apparent  in  the  battle  over  his  bill  to  regulate  the 
transmission  of  the  mails,  and  exclude  therefrom  all  abolition 
literature  intended  for  the  slave-holding  States.  We  have 
noted  the  excitement  of  the  preceding  summer,  and  the  atti 
tude  of  Kendall.  In  his  Message  at  the  opening  of  Congress, 
Jackson  had  recommended  the  enactment  of  such  a  law  "as 
will  prohibit,  under  severe  penalties,  the  circulation  in  the 
Southern  States,  through  the  mail,  of  incendiary  publications 
intended  to  instigate  the  slaves  to  insurrection."  Calhoun 
had  eagerly  seized  upon  this  recommendation  to  move  its 
reference  to  a  special  committee,  instead  of  to  the  regularly 
organized  Committee  on  Post-Offices.  Buchanan  opposed 
the  suggestion  on  the  ground  that  the  unusual  course  would 
tend  to  increase  the  excitement  of  the  people.2  Grundy  of 
Tennessee  held  that  the  very  fact  that  the  majority  of  the 
Committee  on  Post-Offices  came  from  a  section  not  directly 
interested  would  give  more  weight  to  its  recommenda 
tions.3  King  of  Alabama  took  advantage  of  Calhoun's  queer 
disclaimer  of  a  political  motive  to  insinuate  its  existence, 
and  favored  the  regular  course  for  the  reasons  advanced  by 
Buchanan.4  Leigh  supported  Calhoun's  plan  on  the  fantastic 
ground  that  since  the  obnoxious  mail  could  not  be  excluded 
by  the  existing  post-office  regulations,  the  Committee  on 
Post-Offices  was  clearly  not  the  proper  body.5  But  it  was 
left  to  Preston  of  South  Carolina  to  explain  bluntly  the  mo- 

*  Calhoun  and  White. 

»  Cong.  Globe,  1st  Session,  24th  Congress,  Dec.  21, 1835. 

•  Ibid.  •  Ibid.  ,  *  Ibid.  , 


446    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

live  of  Calhoun.  Since  the  South  was  especially  interested, 
the  committee  should  be  composed  of  Senators  from  the 
slave-holding  States.  The  Senate  good-naturedly  consented 
to  Calhoun's  plan,  and  a  special  committee  was  named  with 
Calhoun  as  chairman. 

A  little  later,  an  extreme  bill,  professing  to  meet  the  views 
of  the  President,  was  submitted,  accompanied  by  an  inflam 
matory  report,  reiterative  of  the  compact  theory  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  calculated  further  to  fan  the  excitement  on 
the  subject  of  abolition.  Both  the  Administration  and  Whig 
leaders  were  hostile  to  the  measure,  but  it  best  served  the 
purpose  of  Calhoun  to  ignore  the  Whigs  and  to  harp  inces 
santly  upon  the  opposition  from  Senators  close  to  the  Jackson- 
Van  Buren  organization.  The  report,  according  to  the  inter 
pretation  of  Calhoun,  set  forth  three  propositions:  that  the 
National  Government  had  no  right  to  prohibit  papers,  no 
right  to  say  what  papers  should  be  transmitted,  and  that 
these  rights  belonged  to  the  States.1  The  bill  provided  that 
it  should  be  a  crime  for  a  postmaster  knowingly  to  receive 
and  put  into  the  mail  any  written,  printed,  or  pictorial 
matter  concerning  slavery,  directed  to  any  post-office  in  a 
State  which  prohibited  the  circulation  of  such  matter;  that 
such  literature,  if  not  withdrawn  from  the  mails  within  a 
given  time,  should  be  burned;  and  it  made  the  Postmaster- 
General  and  all  his  subordinates  responsible  for  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  law. 

Early  in  the  debate  the  political  motive  appeared  when 
King  of  Alabama  again  charged  Calhoun  with  being  moved 
by  hostility  to  Jackson.  What,  exclaimed  the  bristling 
Carolinian,  "I  have  too  little  respect  for  General  Jackson's 
judgment,  and  if  he  were  not  President  of  the  United  States, 
I  would  say  for  his  character,  to  place  myself  in  such  a  posi 
tion."  2  On  the  following  day  we  find  him  striking  the  same 
note:  "I  cannot  but  be  surprised  at  the  course  of  the  friends 

1  Calhoun's  speech.  Cong.  Globe,  April  12,  183G.  2  Ibid. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        447 

of  the  Executive,"  he  said.  "I  have  heard  Senators  denounce 
this  measure,  recommended  by  the  Executive,  as  unconsti 
tutional,  as  tyrannical,  as  an  abuse  of  power,  who  never 
before  dared  whisper  a  word  against  the  Administration.  Is 
it  because  the  present  Executive  is  going  out  of  power  that 
his  influence  is  declining?"  l  This  constant  harping  on  the 
attitude  of  the  Administration  Senators,  whether  so  intended 
or  not,  was  looked  upon  by  them  as  an  attempt  to  make 
political  capital  against  Van  Buren  in  the  slave  States.  "I 
wish  the  gentleman  would  restrain  the  frequent  repetition 
of  such  expressions,"  said  Cuthbert  of  Georgia,  "as  they 
necessarily  bring  on  him  a  suspicion  of  his  sincerity.  Why 
should  this  be  a  party  question?  It  would  show  a  wicked 
ness,  a  recklessness  of  the  welfare  of  our  common  country 
for  any  man  to  endeavor  to  make  it  so."  2 

But  Calhoun  persisted  in  his  attempt  to  maneuver  the 
friends  of  Van  Buren  into  an  attitude  offensive  to  the  South 
ern  States.  Ben  ton  notes,  significantly,  that  it  was  rather 
remarkable  that  three  tie  votes  occurred  in  succession,  two 
on  amendments,  and  one  on  the  engrossment  of  the  bill. 
His  clear  implication  is  that  this  was  done  to  force  Van  Bu 
ren  to  cast  a  deciding  vote,  never  doubting  that  it  would  be 
hostile  to  the  measure.  When  the  bill  came  up  for  engross 
ment,  Calhoun  demanded  an  aye  and  nay  vote.  When  three 
men  appeared  to  make  a  majority,  three  on  the  other  side 
instantly  appeared.  At  the  time  the  vote  was  being  taken, 
Van  Buren  had  left  the  chair  and  was  pacing  up  and  down, 
concealed  by  the  colonnade,  behind  the  rostrum.  Benton 
says  that  "his  eyes  were  wide  open  to  see  what  would  hap 
pen."  3  He  observed  the  keen  eyes  of  the  excited  Calhoun 
searching  the  chamber  for  his  anticipated  prey.  He  heard 
him  ask  "eagerly  and  loudly"  where  the  Vice-President 
had  gone,  and  demand  that  the  sergeant-at-arms  look  for 
him.  But  Van  Buren  had  heard  and  seen  all,  and,  when  the 

1  Cong.  Globe,  April  13,  1836.  * Ibid.  »  Thirty  Years"  View,  l,  587. 


448    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

time  came,  he  calmly  took  the  chair,  and  with  his  charac 
teristic  serenity  cast  the  deciding  vote  in  favor  of  engross 
ment.  Benton  was  positive  that  had  he  voted  otherwise  the 
Calhoun  faction,  with  the  aid  of  the  "Telegraph,"  would  have 
inflamed  the  South  against  him.  This  would  have  been  all  the 
easier  because  Hugh  Lawson  White,  who  was  playing  openly 
for  the  extreme  State-Rights  and  pro-slavery  support,  voted 
for  the  bill.  But  Van  Buren  and  his  friends  were  not  blind 
to  the  conspiracy,  and  the  two  Democratic  Senators  from 
New  York,  intimate  political  friends  of  the  presidential  nomi 
nee,  ascertaining  first  that  their  votes  were  not  needed  to 
defeat  the  measure,  cast  expediency  votes  in  its  favor,  and 
thus  robbed  Calhoun  and  White  of  the  opportunity  to  make 
political  capital  out  of  the  bill.  It  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of 
25  to  19.1 

Thus  the  session  dragged  on  into  June,  with  none  of  the 
parties  gaining  any  material  advantage  for  the  purposes  of 
the  campaign.  As  the  session  was  drawing  to  a  close,  Senator 
White,  who  took  his  candidacy  more  to  heart  than  any  of 
the  other  candidates,  made  a  discussion  of  the  resolution  to 
expunge  the  occasion  for  an  acidulous  attack  upon  Jackson 
in  the  presence  of  Van  Buren,  who  serenely  presided.  He 
charged  that  Jackson  had  "made  up  his  mind  who  should 
be  his  successor,"  and  had  used  all  the  power  of  patronage  to 
destroy  him  (White).  With  great  particularity,  he  went  over 
the  part  the  President  was  taking  in  the  canvass  then  on,  the 
letters  he  had  written,  the  copies  of  the  "Washington  Globe " 
he  had  personally  franked,  the  material  he  had  furnished 
White's  enemies  upon  the  stump  in  Tennessee.2  The  personal 
tone  of  the  attack  appears  to  have  made  a  painful  impression 
even  upon  White's  friends,  and  certainly  did  not  disturb 

1  Charles.  H.  Peck  in  The  Jacksonian  Epoch,  implies  (p.  281)  that  the  tie  vote  was 
arranged  by  Van  Buren's  friends,  but  Benton,  who  was  one  of  the  most  intimate, 
takes  the  opposite  view.  In  his  Autobiography,  Van  Buren  makes  no  reference  to 
the  incident. 

*  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  340-42- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        449 

the  smiling  complacency  of  Van  Buren,  who  listened  with 
courteous  attention.  The  "Congressional  Globe"  of  the  ses 
sion  is  filled  with  such  assaults  on  Jackson  and  his  Admin 
istration,  but  the  Big- Wigs  of  both  parties,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  Calhoun  and  White,  maintained  an  unusual  reserve. 
But  Calhoun  did  his  part  in  full  measure.  Not  only  did  he 
abuse  Jackson  with  indecent  invective,  but,  in  the  presence 
of  Van  Buren,  sneered  at  the  latter 's  character  and  ability. 
Jackson  had  "courage  and  firmness;  is  warlike,  bold,  auda 
cious;  but  he  is  not  true  to  his  word  and  violates  the  most 
solemn  pledges  without  scruple."  He  had  "done  the  State 
some  service,  too,  which  is  remembered  greatly  to  his  advan 
tage."  But  Van  Buren  "has  none  of  these  recommenda 
tions."  No,  as  Senator  Mangum 1  had  said,  he  "has  none  of 
the  lion  or  tiger  breed  about  him;  he  belongs  more  to  the  fox 
arid  the  weasel."  2 

With  nothing  better  to  offer  than  this,  the  tired  statesmen 
adjourned  on  July  4th,  and  hastened  to  their  homes,  some  to 
sulk  in  their  tents  in  disgust,  others  to  take  the  field  to  wage 
the  fight. 

vm 

IN  1836  the  issues  of  the  campaign  were  not  so  clearly  de 
fined  by  conditions  as  in  1832,  nor  by  platform  declarations, 
as  in  more  recent  years.  The  party  declarations  of  prin 
ciple  had  no  meaning.  That  of  the  Democrats  could  have 
summed  up  all  in  the  endorsement  of  the  Jackson  Admin 
istration  and  a  pledge  to  continue  the  Jacksonian  policies; 
that  of  the  Whigs  in  a  denunciation  of  the  principles  and 
policies  of  Jacksonian  Democracy. 

The  platform  of  Senator  White  is  found  in  his  letter  in  re 
ply  to  that  of  a  committee  informing  him  of  his  nomination 
—  a  personal  protest.  "When  an  attempt  is  made,"  he 
wrote,  "to  create  a  party  not  founded  upon  settled  politi- 

1  South  Carolina's  candidate  for  President.  *  Cong.  Globe,  Feb.  17. 1836. 


450    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

cal  principles,  composed  of  men  belonging  to  every  political 
sect,  having  no  common  bond  of  unity  save  that  of  a  wish  to 
place  one  of  themselves  in  the  highest  office  known  to  the 
Constitution,  for  the  purpose  of  having  all  the  honors,  offices, 
and  emoluments  of  the  Government  distributed  by  them 
among  their  followers,  I  consider  such  an  association, 
whether  composed  of  many  or  a  few,  a  mere  faction,  which 
ought  to  be  resisted  by  every  man  who  loves  his  country, 
and  wishes  to  perpetuate  its  liberties."  1 

The  most  influential  leaders  of  the  Whigs  were  not  en 
thusiastic  over  any  of  the  Opposition  candidates,  with  the 
exception  of  Webster,  who  manifestly  had  no  chance. 
"White  and  Webster  are  now  the  golden  calves  of  the  peo 
ple,"  wrote  the  caustic  Adams,  "and  their  dull  sayings  are 
repeated  for  wit,  and  their  grave  inanity  is  passed  off  for  wis 
dom.  This  bolstering  up  of  mediocrity  would  seem  not  suited 
to  sustain  much  enthusiasm."  Such  as  there  was,  the  cynical 
Puritan  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  "a  practice  of  betting  has 
crept  in,"  and  "that  adds  a  spur  of  private,  personal,  and 
pecuniary  interest  to  the  impulse  of  patriotism."  2  Naturally, 
Adams  was  not  enamoured  of  Van  Buren,  who  impressed 
him  as  a  "demagogue  of  the  same  school  [as  "Ike"  Hill] 
with  a  tincture  of  aristocracy  —  an  amalgamated  metal  of 
lead  and  copper."  3 

There  was  no  hero  worshiping  of  the  candidates  in  1836, 
but  the  worship  of  Jackson  continued,  and  the  Whigs  con 
templated  the  phenomenon  with  melancholy  misgivings. 
Philip  Hone,  that  faithful  chronicler  of  Whig  sentiment, 
found  the  political  aspect  of  the  country  "worse  than  ever." 
Indeed,  "  General  Jackson's  star  is  still  in  the  ascendant  and 
shines  brighter  than  ever."  A  month  before  the  nomination 

1  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  333-34. 

2  Adams's  Memoirs,  Nov.  11,  1836. 

3  Ibid.,  Oct.  9,  1834.  As  we  have  noted,  however,  Adams  in  other  parts  of  his 
diary  is  cordial  to  Van  Buren,  and  Van  Buren's  Autobiography  shows  the  latter  to 
have  admired  Adams. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        451 

of  Van  Buren,  the  Whig  diarist  had  been  forced  to  admit 
that  business  conditions  had  vastly  improved.1  In  truth  the 
Whigs  were  without  an  issue  they  dared  advance,  and  .could 
hope  for  success  only  through  the  amalgamation  of  all  the 
disgruntled  with  the  Whigs  —  the  Anti-Masons,  Nullifiers, 
State-Rights  extremists,  and  disappointed  office-seekers  — • 
and  this  was  manifestly  impossible. 

The  campaign  was  not  so  exciting  as  that  of  1832,  and 
lacked  the  hysteria  of  the  stump  which  characterized  that 
of  1840.  The  newspapers  were  relied  upon  largely  for  propa 
ganda,  and  the  "Globe"  was  summoned  to  herculean  efforts. 
To  meet  the  work  of  Blair,  a  campaign  paper,  called  the 
"Appeal,"  was  established  in  Washington  to  advocate  the 
claims  of  White.  The  "Telegraph,"  edited  by  the  frenzied 
Duff  Green,  viciously  attacked  both  Jackson  and  Van  Buren. 
And  the  work  of  these  papers  colored  that  of  all  the  minor 
papers  of  the  country.  But  the  people  remained  calm  and 
indifferent.  The  attacks  upon  the  candidates,  many  bald 
slanders,  stirred  no  one  but  the  politicians.  The  custom  of 
interrogating  candidates  had  now  become  fixed,  and  the 
three  aspirants  were  bombarded  with  questions  covering  a 
multitude  of  subjects. 

The  followers  of  Calhoun  feverishly  continued  their  efforts 
to  embarrass  Van  Buren  on  the  abolition  movement.  From 
North  Carolina  came  a  demand  for  his  position  on  the  right 
of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
His  answer  was  not  as  definite  as  the  questioner  had  hoped. 
There  was  no  question  as  to  the  right  of  Congress  to  act  in 
the  District,  but  the  wily  candidate  had  no  intention  to  give 
a  curt  reply.  His  answer  was  that  Congress  had  no  right  to 
interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States  —  a  question  not  put ; 
and  that  he  was  opposed  to  the  abolishment  of  slavery  in 
the  District  by  congressional  action  —  which  was  not  a  reply 
at  all. 

1  Hone's  Diary,  April  8,  1836. 


452    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Then  followed  the  questions  of  the  Equal  Righters,  or 
Locofocos,  as  they  were  dubbed  in  New  York  by  the  "Cou 
rier  and  Enquirer,"  as  to  Van  Buren's  position  on  their 
"declaration  of  rights."  The  reply  of  the  Red  Fox,  that  his 
long  public  career  furnished  a  sufficient  illumination  of  his 
position  on  the  general  principles  of  the  new  party,  was 
considered  by  the  Locos  as  an  "evasion,"  and  denounced 
as  unsatisfactory  "to  any  true  Democrat." 

Meanwhile  Clay  was  exercising  an  unnatural  restraint  on 
his  partisan  zeal,  remaining  in  strict  retirement  at  Ashland, 
tending  his  cattle,  looking  over  his  fields,  writing  an  occa 
sional  letter,  and  meditating  a  retirement  from  the  Senate 
before  the  next  session.  During  the  preceding  winter,  the 
death  of  a  favorite  daughter  had  crushed  him  to  the  earth. 
He  keenly  felt  the  apparent  neglect  of  his  party.  In  the 
canvass  he  took  no  part.  It  was  not  until  the  campaign  was 
nearing  its  close,  in  October,  that  he  appeared  upon  the  plat 
form  to  discuss  the  candidates,  and  then  with  evident  reluc 
tance.  A  barbecue  had  been  arranged  at  Lexington,  within 
sight  of  Clay's  home,  and  a  declination  to  participate  would 
have  given  deadly  offense.  He  spoke,  however,  with  un 
usual  temperance,  urging  a  unification  of  the  opposition 
against  Van  Buren.  This  was  to  have  been  expected.  Paying 
tribute  to  the  civic  worth  of  White,  he  announced  his  inten 
tion  to  vote  for  Harrison,  not  because  he  was  his  first  choice 
-  for  he  pretended  to  prefer  Webster  —  but  because  he 
thought  that  Harrison  "combined  the  greatest  prospects  of 
defeating  Mr.  Van  Buren."  l 

If  Clay  was  indifferent,  his  old  rival,  Andrew  Jackson,  was 
not.  Assuming  the  certainty  of  his  favorite's  election,  his 
personal  pride  was  touched  by  White's  challenge  of  his  own 
leadership  in  Tennessee,  and  as  soon  as  Congress  adjourned, 
he  started  on  the  kmg  and  tiresome  journey  to  the  Hermitage. 

1  Clay  to  White,  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  367.  Clay's  real  dislike  of  Webster 
is  discussed  by  Van  Buren  in  his  Autobiography ;  677-79. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        453 

Passing  through  eastern  Tennessee,  he  appeared  frankly  in 
the  role  of  a  canvasser  for  votes.  With  old-time  fire,  he  de 
nounced  his  erstwhile  friend,  the  Senator,  as  a  Federalist  — 
a  discovery  he  had  but  recently  made;  and  with  all  the  fer 
vor  of  Jacksonian  friendship  he  held  Van  Buren  up  as  the 
purest  and  most  uncompromising  of  Democrats.  The  dom 
ineering  quality  of  his  leadership  flared  in  his  declaration 
that  no  friend  of  White's  could  be  other  than  his  own  enemy. 
At  Blountville,  Jonesboro,  Greenville,  Newport,  Lebanon, 
and  Nashville  —  every  point  he  touched  —  he  delivered 
political  harangues  in  conversations  with  the  friends  and 
admirers  who  flocked  to  greet  him.1  Thus  he  employed  every 
method  known  to  electioneering,  short  of  actually  taking 
the  stump. 

This  effort  of  the  President  was  met  by  White  with  a  power 
ful  speech  at  Knoxville,  where  a  banquet  in  his  honor  was 
arranged  for  the  purpose.  "  It  is  not  I  who  am  to  be  put  down 
and  disgraced  in  this  controversy,  if  Tennessee  is  either 
coaxed  or  coerced  to  surrender  her  choice,"  he  said.  "The 
Saviour  of  the  World,  when  upon  earth,  found  among  the 
small  number  of  His  disciples,  one  Judas,  who  not  only  sold 
but  betrayed  him  for  his  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  It  were  vain 
for  one  of  my  humble  attainments,  who  has  nothing  to  offer 
but  his  best  efforts  to  promote  the  public  welfare,  to  hope 
that  all  who  professed  to  be  his  friends  must  continue  to  act 
up  to  that  character.  Already  have  I  found  more  than  one 
Judas,  who,  by  parting  with  their  interest  in  me,  have  re 
ceived,  or  expect  to  receive,  more  than  twice  their  thirty 
pieces."  2  Thus,  however  tame  the  campaign  elsewhere,  it 
was  a  hand-to-hand  struggle  in  the  President's  own  State  — 
and  here  Jackson  was  to  meet  the  greatest  humiliation  of 
his  career. 

1  For  Jackson's  activities  in  Tennessee  see  Memoir  of  Hugh  Laioson  White,  356. 

2  White's  speech,  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White,  346-55. 


454    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

DC 

THE  elections  in  1836  were  not  held  on  the  same  day  in  all 
the  States,  and  from  November  4th,  when  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio  voted,  until  November  23d,  when  the  election  was  held 
in  Rhode  Island,  the  politicians  were  kept  in  suspense,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  first  week  in  December  that  the  Demo 
crats  were  able  to  rejoice  in  the  certainty  of  their  victory. 
Massachusetts,  which  then  idolized  her  Webster,  gave  him 
her  electoral  vote,  and  stood  alone.  South  Carolina,  which 
had  encouraged  White  to  enter  the  contest,  again  sulked, 
and,  going  outside  the  list  of  avowed  candidates,  gave  hers  to 
Senator  Willie  Mangum,  of  North  Carolina.  White  greatly 
disappointed  the  Whigs,  who  had  expected  him  to  get  enough 
votes  in  the  Southern  and  Western  States  to  throw  the  con 
test  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  carrying  only 
Tennessee  and  Georgia.  Harrison  received  the  electoral 
votes  of  Delaware,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  New 
Jersey,  Ohio,  and  Vermont  —  a  total  of  73;  while  Van  Buren 
won  Connecticut,  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode  Is 
land  in  New  England;  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  Mis 
sissippi,  Missouri,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia  in  the  South; 
Illinois  and  Michigan  in  the  West;  and  both  the  most  im 
portant  States  in  the  Union,  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 
With  only  124  electoral  votes  divided  among  his  four  oppo 
nents,  Van  Buren  had  170,  a  majority  of  46. 

However,  in  the  results  the  more  prescient  of  the  Demo 
cratic  leaders  could  find  ample  justification  for  concern  as 
to  the  future.  The  votes  of  Georgia,  Indiana,  New  Jersey, 
Ohio,  and  Tennessee,  which  had  gone  to  Jackson  four  years 
before,  had  been  lost  by  Van  Buren,  and  he  had  gained  only 
Connecticut.  But  the  electoral  vote  does  not  indicate  the  full 
extent  of  the  Democratic  slump.  The  popular  vote  in  some 
of  the  States  he  had  carried  had  fallen  off  woefully  from  the 
previous  election.  The  Democratic  majority  in  Virginia  had 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  SUCCESSION        455 

decreased  from  22,158  to  6893;  in  Illinois  from  8718  to  3114; 
in  North  Carolina  from  20,299  to  3284.  As  compared  with 
Jackson's  popular  majority  of  157,293  in  1832,  Van  Buren 
won  only  on  a  popular  majority  of  24,893  out  of  a  total  of 
1,498,205  votes  cast.  In  his  own  State  of  New  York,  how 
ever,  he  increased  Jackson's  popular  majority  of  13,601  in 
1832  to  32,272. 

In  White  House  circles  there  were  some  painfully  humil 
iating  features  in  the  results,  and  to  none  more  than  to 
Jackson.  The  people  of  Tennessee  gave  White  a  majority  of 
10,000,  and  even  in  the  President's  own  precinct,  White  re 
ceived  43  votes  to  18  for  Van  Buren.  In  Georgia,  the  home  of 
the  President's  Secretary  of  State,  John  Forsyth,  the  people 
turned  from  the  candidate  of  the  Georgian,  who  was  so  in 
timately  identified  with  Van  Buren 's  political  fortunes  that 
he  was  to  be  retained  at  the  head  of  the  Cabinet  through 
the  new  Administration,  to  give  their  vote  to  White.  In 
Tennessee,  the  result  was  not  unnatural.  The  President  over 
estimated  his  strength  in  assuming  that  he  could  persuade  the 
people  to  reject  their  neighbor  and  fellow  citizen,  who  had 
served  them  well,  for  a  New  York  politician.  In  Georgia 
the  turnover  was  political,  due  to  the  ascendancy  of  the 
radical  State-Rights  party,  and  the  strength  of  the  Nullify 
ing  element  which  Forsyth  had  courageously  fought. 

The  result  of  the  congressional  elections  even  more  im 
pressively  indicated  the  drift  away  from  the  Jacksonian 
policies.  The  Democratic  majority  in  the  House  during  the 
Twenty-Fourth  Congress,  of  46,  was  reduced  in  the  next 
Congress  to  a  plurality  of  2  over  the  Whigs,  with  10  inde 
pendent  members  holding  the  balance  of  power.  Whether 
this  was  due  to  a  reaction  against  the  Democratic  Party,  or 
merely  measured  the  loss  of  the  personal  prestige  of  Jackson 
as  the  candidate,  was  the  problem  that  gave  concern  to  the 
Democracy.  If  Van  Buren  looked  forward  with  any  misgiv 
ings  to  his  Administration,  however,  he  gave  no  sign;  and 


456    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

Jackson,  if  chagrined  over  his  loss  of  Tennessee,  was  master 
ful  in  dissimulation.  There  was  as  much  jubilation  in  the 
Democratic  camp  as  though  the  victory  had  been  as  decisive 
as  that  of  four  years  before.  When  the  electoral  votes  were 
being  counted,  Clay  turned  to  Van  Buren  with  the  observa 
tion:  "It  is  a  cloudy  day,  sir."  "The  sun  will  shine,"  replied 
the  smiling  Red  Fox,  "on  the  4th  of  March,  sir."  1 

1  Parley's  Reminiscences,  i,  198. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS 
I 

JACKSON  returned  to  the  White  House  after  the  election  in  a 
serious  physical  condition.  The  exertions  of  the  hot  summer, 
the  long  and  wearisome  journey,  the  keen  disappointment 
over  the  loss  of  Tennessee,  and  his  humiliation  over  his  de 
feat  in  the  Hermitage  precinct,  had  greatly  weakened  the  old 
lion.  The  return  journey  to  the  capital  had  increased  his 
debility,  and  soon  after  reaching  the  White  House  he  was 
driven  to  his  bed  by  a  hemorrhage  of  the  lungs.  Ill  almost  to 
death,  no  word  of  sympathy  reached  him  from  his  foes,  and 
from  his  bed  he  grimly  directed  and  encouraged  the  counter 
attacks  with  the  spirit  of  the  Jackson  of  New  Orleans.  In 
his  final  Message  to  Congress,  he  paid  tribute  to  the  fidelity 
and  integrity  of  his  subordinates,  and  in  ordinary  times  this 
would  have  been  permitted  to  pass  unchallenged  in  view  of 
his  early  relinquishment  of  power.  But  the  times  were  not 
ordinary.  The  last  short  session  was  to  be  one  of  extraor 
dinary  bitterness,  with  personal  altercations  commonplace, 
and  with  statesmen  of  prominence  toying  all  too  lightly  with 
their  pistols. 

Thus  the  tribute  to  the  subordinates  of  the  Executive  de 
partments  was  eagerly  seized  upon  by  Henry  A.  Wise,  the 
brilliant  and  impassioned  young  Whig  of  Virginia,  as  a  pre 
text  for  a  bitter  personal  attack  —  one  of  the  most  severe, 
satiric,  sarcastic  philippics  to  be  found  in  the  records  of 
Congress  from  the  first  session  to  the  present  hour.  The 
way  was  paved  for  it  through  the  presentation  of  a  resolu 
tion  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  special  committee  to 
deal  with  that  portion  of  the  Message  to  which  Wise  took 
exception.  He  summoned  to  his  purpose  all  the  accumulated 


458    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

charges  of  eight  years  of  rancorous  party  warfare,  marched 
them  with  a  militant  swing  before  the  House,  and  de 
manded  an  investigation  to  determine,  on  the  eve  of  the 
stricken  President's  departure  from  public  life,  whether  he 
had  been  falsely  accused.  Had  Jackson  actually  made  such 
claims  for  his  subordinates?  he  asked.  No,  he  had  not  even 
written  the  Message  because  physically  unfit.  "It  comes 
to  us  and  the  country  reeking  with  the  fumes  of  the  Kitchen 
Cabinet." 

The  excited  Representatives  gathered  about  the  young 
orator  were  not  kept  long  in  doubt  as  to  the  particular  object 
of  his  attack.  Describing  Jackson's  electioneering  activities 
in  Tennessee,  Wise  dropped  the  veil:  "I  am  told,"  he  said, 
"that  they  carried  him  around  like  a  lion  for  show,  and  made 
him  roar  like  a  lion.  They  had  catechisms  prepared  for  him, 
and  the  negotiations  of  the  mission  were  conducted  by  pre 
concerted  questions  and  answers.  A  crowd  would  collect  on 
the  highway,  or  in  the  bar-rooms,  and  some  village  politician 
of  the  party  would  inquire,  'What  think  you,  General,  of 
such  a  man?'  In  a  loud  tone,  much  too  stentorian  for  those 
lungs  which  are  now  lacerated,  the  answer  rang,  'He  is  a 
traitor,  sir.'  'There,  there,'  repeated  the  demagogues  in  the 
crowd,  'did  you  not  hear  that? '  'What  think  you  of  another, 
General?'  'He  is  a  liar,  sir.'  'What  of  another?'  'He  made 
a  speech  for  which  he  paid  a  stenographer  five  dollars.'  And 
another  was  'on  the  fence  sir,  on  the  fence.'  '  But,  General, 
what  think  you  of  Mr.  [the  first  time  that  Reuben  was  ever 
called  'Mister']  Reuben  M.  Whitney?'  'There  is  no  just 
cause  of  complaint  against  Mr.  Whitney,  sir;  he  is  as  true  a 
patriot  as  ever  was;  they  are  all  liars  who  accuse  him  of  aught 
of  wrong.'"  1  Thus  it  was  evident  from  the  speech  of  Wise 
that  the  attack  was  aimed  at  Whitney,  erroneously  described 
by  some  historians  as  a  member  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,2 

1  Appendix,  Cong.  Globe,  2d  Session,  24th  Congress.  274-77. 
8  Schouler,  iv,  133. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  459 

but  nevertheless  entrusted  with  the  public  money.  Little  can 
be  said  in  defense  of  Jackson's  confidence  in  this  man,  who 
had  been  ferociously  assailed  in  the  House  in  the  preceding 
spring  by  Wise  and  Balie  Peyton,  a  hot-headed  Whig  from 
Tennessee.  With  the  clever  support  of  the  Democrats,  the 
resolution  was  adopted  and  Wise  was  made  chairman  of 
the  investigating  committee.  This  investigation,  probably  in 
tended  merely  as  a  peg  on  which  to  hang  partisan  harangues 
against  the  stricken  President,  to  whose  physical  condition 
Wise  had  made  sneering  reference,  accomplished  nothing. 

Before  the  committee  had  got  fairly  started,  it  struck  a 
snag  in  a  personal  altercation  in  the  committee  room  between 
Peyton  and  Wise  on  one  side,  and  Whitney  on  the  other, 
resulting  in  the  refusal  of  the  latter  to  appear  again  unless 
assured  that  members  of  the  committee  would  attend  un 
armed!  The  balking  witness  was  thereupon  cited  for  con 
tempt  and  dragged  to  the  bar  of  the  House;  and  the  clever 
Administration  leaders  quickly  grasped  the  opportunity  to 
divert  attention  from  the  main  question  to  the  arrogant, 
violent  methods  of  the  hot-headed  young  Whigs  in  charge. 
Thus  Whitney  set  himself  to  the  task  of  proving  that  he 
could  not  appear  before  the  committee  without  serious  dan 
ger  of  assassination.  Witnesses  to  the  altercation,  on  which 
he  based  his  conclusion,  were  summoned,  and  a  week  was 
consumed  in  the  hearing  of  evidence  and  the  cross-examina 
tion  of  witnesses. 

The  incident  on  which  Whitney  based  his  fears  is  graph 
ically  described  in  the  testimony  of  John  Fairfield,  a  Repre 
sentative  from  Maine.1  The  picture  painted  of  the  commit 
tee  room  scene  is  not  inspiring.  Whitney  had  declined  to 
answer  a  question  because  of  reflections  on  his  integrity  by 
Peyton,  and  it  seems  that  he  had  gone  so  far  as  to  scowl  at 
the  Tennessee  Hotspur  in  explaining  his  refusal.  It  was  a  day 
when  honor  was  a  sensitive  plant,  and  Peyton  sprang  to  his 

1  Afterward  Senator. 


460    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

feet  with  a  promise  to  "take  his  life  upon  the  spot."  The 
equally  fiery  Wise,  ever  ready  for  a  combat,  rose  to  the  oc 
casion,  and  took  his  position  beside  his  irate  colleague  with 
the  comment  that  "this  damned  insolence  is  intolerable." 
Encouraged  by  the  open  sympathy  of  Wise,  the  Tennesseean 
began  to  meditate  aloud,  as  on  the  stage,  on  the  enormity  of 
the  insult,  and  to  mutter  that  he  would  not  be  insulted  "by 
a  damned  thief  and  robber."  His  passion,  feeding  on  his  hot 
meditations,  and  his  excitement  growing  greater,  he  wheeled 
upon  Whitney,  who,  alarmed,  sprang  to  his  feet  and  claimed 
the  protection  of  the  committee.  "Damn  you  —  damn  you ! " 
shouted  the  white-faced  Peyton,  "you  shan't  say  a  word 
while  in  this  room  —  if  you  do  I  will  put  you  to  death."  With 
these  words  he  put  his  hand  to  his  bosom  and  moved  toward 
the  object  of  his  fury,  and  Wise  and  other  members  of  the 
committee  tried  to  calm  the  infuriated  statesman.  "Don't, 
Peyton,"  cried  Wise,  "damn  him,  he  is  not  worth  your  no 
tice."  Somewhat  mollified  by  this  assurance,  the  insulted 
Representative  sank  into  his  chair  —  but  his  blood  still 
boiled.  "Damn  him,  his  eyes  are  upon  me!"  he  cried  as  in  a 
melodrama.  "Damn  him,  he  is  looking  at  me  —  he  shan't 
do  it!"  By  this  time  it  was  thought  possible  to  calm  the 
nerves  of  the  jumpy  Peyton  if  the  witness,  whose  eyes  were 
so  offensive,  could  be  removed  from  the  room;  and  as  he 
passed  out,  Wise  requested  the  committee  to  remain  seated 
to  prevent  an  encounter  in  the  corridor.1  Thus  far  the  im 
pulsive  Virginian  appeared  in  the  favorable  light  of  a  peace 
maker,  but,  finding  pleasure  in  the  narration  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  hated  minion  of  the  Administration  had  been 
frightened  out  of  his  wits,  he  began  to  boast  that  his  pur 
pose  in  getting  close  to  Whitney  had  been  to  shoot  him  at  the 
slightest  provocation,  and  he  was  thus  drawn  into  the  con 
troversy  along  with  Peyton. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more   pleasing  to  the  political 

1  Fairfield's  testimony,  Cong.  Globet  2d  Session,  24th  Congress. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  461 

managers  of  the  Administration.  Before  the  galleries,  packed 
to  hear  the  eye-witnesses,  the  two  Whigs  began  to  appear 
more  and  more  as  quarrelsome,  pistol-toting  bullies  taking 
advantage  of  their  position  to  browbeat  and  intimidate  an 
unprotected  witness.  The  Democratic  press,  under  the  inspi 
ration  of  Blair  and  Kendall,  devoted  columns  to  the  evidence, 
and  sentiment  was  turned  against  the  Whig  leaders  until 
they  began  to  complain  that  they,  and  not  Whitney,  were 
apparently  at  the  bar.  "Sir,"  Wise  declared,  "it  is  I  who  am 
on  trial  and  not  Reuben  M.  Whitney.  I  have  no  doubt  of  the 
contrivance  to  make  this  issue  before  the  country.  ...  I  wish 
to  know,  sir,  if  there  are  not  other  officers  of  the  Government 
who  have  issued  the  order  that  the  power  of  this  House,  and 
the  Executive  power  of  the  country,  are  both  to  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  two  humble  and  inexperienced  members  of  the 
House.  Sir,  I  have  felt  it." 

The  affair  had  now  worked  around  to  the  distinct  advan 
tage  of  the  Administration,  and  Wise  and  Peyton,  and  not 
Jackson,  were  in  distress.  The  psychological  hour  had  struck 
to  end  the  farce.  The  motion  to  dismiss  Whitney  was  made 
and  carried,  and  when  the  name  of  Wise  was  called,  he  sol 
emnly  rose: 

"Mr.  Speaker,"  he  said,  "I  shall  not  vote  until  I  ascertain 
whether  I  am  discharged  from  prosecution  or  not." 

As  the  smiling  House  offered  no  information,  his  name  is 
not  recorded  among  those  voting.  Thus  the  one  offensive 
against  Jackson,  launched  by  his  enemies  on  the  eve  of  his 
relinquishment  of  power,  ended  in  a  riproaring  farce. 

n 

IN  the  Senate  the  offensive  was  taken  by  Jackson's  sup 
porters  when  Benton  served  notice  that  he  would  demand  a 
vote  on  his  motion  to  expunge  the  vote  of  censure  from  the 
records.  Much  water  had  passed  over  the  dam  since  the 
persistent  Missourian  had  first  offered  his  resolution.  With 


462    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  aid  of  the  Kitchen  Cabinet,  he  had  made  it  a  national 
issue.  The  fight  had  been  carried  into  the  States  of  the  Sena 
tors  who  had  voted  for  the  censure,  and,  in  numerous  in 
stances,  the  offending  member  had  either  been  defeated  for 
reelection,  or  the  legislature  had  been  prevailed  upon  to  in 
struct  him  to  vote  to  expunge.  One  of  the  opponents  of  the 
Benton  resolution  had  died  and  been  succeeded  by  a  Jackson 
sympathizer.  Through  defeat,  or  resignations  forced  by  in 
structions  from  legislatures,  enemies  had  given  place  to 
friends  from  Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  North  Carolina,  Illi 
nois,  Mississippi,  and  Virginia.  New  Senators,  friends  of 
Jackson,  had  entered  from  the  new  States  of  Arkansas  and 
Michigan.  A  private  poll  convinced  Benton  that  the  triumph 
was  at  hand,  all  the  sweeter  because  coming  on  the  eve  of 
Jackson's  retirement.  The  day  after  Christmas  he  reintro- 
duced  his  original  resolution,  and  on  January  12th  supported 
it  in  a  speech  laudatory  of  Jackson  —  a  psean  of  anticipated 
triumph.  The  old  man,  always  a  trifle  pompous  and  stilted 
in  his  style,  was  never  more  so,  but  in  his  most  extravagant 
praise  he  unquestionably  spoke  the  language  of  his  heart. 
Beginning  by  recalling  the  discouraging  circumstances  under 
which  he  first  offered  his  resolution,  he  gloatingly  declared 
that  the  Opposition  had  become  "more  and  more  odious  to 
the  public  mind  and  musters  now  but  a  slender  phalanx  of 
friends."  The  people  had  been  passing  on  the  censure;  had 
passed  upon  it  in  the  triumph  of  Van  Buren,  who  had  pub 
licly  proclaimed  his  adherence  to  the  plans  of  Benton.  He 
would  not  rehash  the  constitutional  arguments.  The  debate 
had  ended  and  the  verdict  had  been  rendered,  but  the  occa 
sion  called  for  some  reference  to  the  achievements  and  tri 
umphs  of  the  Administration.  Then  he  hastily  sketched  its 
battles,  claiming  in  the  aftermath  of  each  the  vindication  of 
events  —  the  destruction  of  the  Bank,  the  removal  of  the  de 
posits,  the  triumphant  termination  of  the  controversy  with 
the  French. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  463 

"And  now,  sir,"  he  concluded,  as  we  may  imagine  with  his 
chest  thrown  out,  "I  finish  the  task  which,  three  years  ago, 
I  imposed  upon  myself.  Solitary  and  alone,  and  amidst  the 
taunts  and  jeers  of  my  opponents,  I  put  this  ball  in  motion. 
The  people  have  taken  it  up  and  rolled  it  forward,  and  I  am 
no  longer  anything  but  a  unit  in  the  vast  mass  which  now 
propels  it.  In  the  name  of  that  mass,  I  speak.  I  demand  the 
execution  of  the  edict  of  the  people;  I  demand  the  expurga 
tion  of  that  sentence  which  the  voice  of  a  few  Senators  and 
the  power  of  their  confederate,  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  has  caused  to  be  placed  upon  the  journal  of  the  Sen 
ate,  and  which  the  voice  of  millions  of  freemen  has  ordered  to 
be  expunged  from  it." 

Thus  spoke  the  champion  of  Jackson  in  the  tones  and 
manner  of  a  conqueror.  As  he  resumed  his  seat,  John  J. 
Crittenden  of  Kentucky  rose  to  protest  against  the  "party 
desecration"  of  the  record,  and  after  a  few  words  from  Sena 
tor  Dana,  who  favored  the  expunging  record,  the  Senate 
adjourned.  On  the  following  day  some  of  the  great  orators 
of  the  Opposition  were  put  forward  to  oppose  the  resolution. 

We  are  told  by  an  eye-witness  that  the  eloquent  Preston 
"spoke  in  a  strain  of  eloquence  inspired  by  his  feelings  of 
great  aversion."  *  If  Benton  was  theatrical,  as  has  been 
justly  charged  by  historians,  the  Whigs  were  even  more  so, 
as  we  shall  see.  Beginning  with  great  solemnity,  and  de 
scribing  his  shock  and  sorrow,  Preston  proceeded: 

"Execution  is  demanded  —  aye,  sir,  the  executioners  are 
here  with  ready  hands.  Exercise  your  function,  gentlemen.  .  . . 
The  axe  is  in  your  hand  —  perform  that  which  is  so  loudly 
called  for.  Execution,  sir,  of  what,  of  whom?  Is  the  axe 
aimed  at  men  who  voted  for  the  resolution  you  are  about  to 
expunge?  Is  it  us  you  strike  at?  If  so,  ...  in  God's  name  let 
the  blow  come,  and  as  the  fatal  edge  fell  upon  my  neck,  I 
would  declare  with  honest  sincerity  that  I  would  rather  be 

1  Sargent's  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  334. 


464    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

the  criminal  of  1834  than  the  executioner  of  1837."  More: 
the  names  of  the  Senators  refusing  to  expunge  would  in  the 
future  "be  familiar  as  household  words"  and  be  "taught  to 
children  as  the  names  of  Washington  and  Adams  and  Han 
cock  and  Lee  and  Lafayette  are  now  taught  to  our  children." 

A  moment  later  the  orator's  pensive  melancholy  had 
turned  to  rage. 

"Why  not  expunge  those  who  made  the  record?"  he 
thundered,  forgetting  how  many  had  been  "expunged."  "If 
the  proceedings  had  a  guilt  so  monstrous  as  to  render  neces 
sary  this  novel  and  extraordinary  course,  the  men  themselves 
who  perpetrated  the  deed  —  it  is  they  who  should  be  ex 
punged.  Men  who  entered  so  foul  a  page  upon  the  journal 
cannot  be  worthy  of  a  seat  here.  Remove  us!  Turn  us  out! 
Expel  us  from  the  Senate!  Would  to  God  you  could!  Call 
in  the  pretorian  guard !  Take  us  —  apprehend  us  —  march 
us  off!"1 

After  Rives  and  Niles  had  spoken  in  support  of  the  reso 
lution,  Calhoun  mournfully  rose,  and  with  funereal  sadness, 
not  unmixed  with  scorn,  pointed  out  the  resemblance  of  the 
proceedings  to  the  degenerate  days  of  Rome.  "But  why  do 
I  waste  my  breath?"  he  asked,  in  conclusion.  "I  know  it  is 
all  utterly  vain.  The  day  is  gone;  night  approaches,  and 
night  is  suitable  to  the  dark  deed  we  meditate.  There  is  a 
sort  of  destiny  in  this  thing.  The  act  must  be  performed;  and 
it  is  an  act  that  will  tell  on  the  political  history  of  this  country 
forever.  ...  It  is  a  melancholy  evidence  of  a  broken  spirit, 
ready  to  bow  at  the  feet  of  power.  The  former  act 2  was  such 
a  one  as  might  have  been  perpetrated  in  the  days  of  Pompey 
and  Csesar;  but  an  act  like  this  could  never  have  been  con 
summated  by  a  Roman  Senate  until  the  times  of  Caligula 
and  Nero." 
*  After  Calhoun  concluded,  unsuccessful  efforts  to  adjourn 

1  Appendix,  Cong.  Globe,  2d  Session,  24th  Congress.  135. 
8  Removal  of  deposits. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  465 

were  made,  until  Clay  announced  his  intention  to  speak  at 
length,  and  his  request  for  delay  was  granted.  Had  his  sup 
porters  realized  how  far  from  absolute  certainty  of  success 
Benton  felt,  they  would  have  favored,  instead  of  fought,  an 
adjournment.  The  following  day  was  Saturday,  and  a  care 
ful  poll  disclosed  the  disconcerting  diversity  of  opinion  as  to 
details  which  threatened  the  success  of  the  project,  and  Ben- 
ton  gladly  agreed  to  a  postponement  of  the  discussion  until 
Monday.  That  night  the  then  famous  restaurant  of  Boulan- 
ger  found  all  the  Jacksonian  Senators  seated  about  the  ban 
quet  board.  The  clever  host  had  loaded  the  table  with  his 
choicest  offerings,  and  as  soon  as  the  statesmen  had  reached 
the  mellow,  accommodating  mood,  they  settled  down  to  the 
real  purpose  of  the  feast.  Realizing  that  he  lacked  the  deft 
ness  and  finesse  required  for  ironing  out  all  differences  as 
to  details,  Benton  had  assigned  the  work  of  conciliation  to 
Silas  Wright,  Allen  of  Ohio,  and  Linn  of  Missouri.  Even  so, 
it  "required  all  the  moderation,  tact,  and  skill  of  the  prime 
movers  to  obtain  and  maintain  the  union  upon  details,  on 
the  success  of  which  the  measure  depended."  *  But  when, 
at  midnight,  the  Senators  dispersed,  all  conflicting  views  had 
been  reconciled,  and  for  the  first  time  an  actual  majority  was 
pledged  to  a  single  programme.  It  was  decided  to  call  the  reso 
lution  up  on  Monday,  and  to  keep  it  constantly  before  the 
Senate,  without  adjournment,  until  the  "deed"  was  done. 

To  prevent  any  of  his  flock  from  wandering  afield  in  search 
of  refreshments,  Benton  had  made  ample  preparations, 
and  a  tourist,  wandering  into  Benton's  committee  room  at 
four  o  'clock  on  Monday  afternoon,  would  have  assumed,  in 
view  of  the  vast  quantities  of  cold  ham,  turkey,  rounds  of 
beef,  pickles,  wines,  and  coffee,  that  he  had  stumbled  into 
a  senatorial  cafe.  That  day,  Clay  appeared  in  the  Senate  os 
tentatiously  garbed  in  black  as  though  in  mourning  for  the 
murdered  Constitution.  So  ugly  was  his  mood  that  he  even 

1  Thirty  Years'  View,  I,  727. 


466    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

refused  snuff  offered  by  a  Democratic  Senator  he  knew  was 
going  to  vote  to  expunge.  The  galleries  were  packed  to  wit 
ness  the  drama,  or  melodrama,  and  impatiently  sat  through 
the  preliminary  work  of  the  Senate.  At  length  the  hour  came 
for  the  consideration  of  the  resolution,  and  all  eyes  turned  to 
Clay,  who  thoroughly  enjoyed  his  role  in  the  play.  As  his 
tall  form  slowly  rose,  there  was  a  rustling  in  the  galleries 
as  the  spectators  shifted  their  position  to  get  a  better  view  of 
the  great  enemy  of  Jackson.  On  his  feet,  he  stood  a  moment 
in  silence,  as  though  weighed  down  by  the  importance  of  his 
task,  if  not  by  its  hopelessness.  Then  he  began  in  subdued 
tones,  albeit  his  silvery  voice  was  heard  distinctly  over  the 
chamber.  Such  a  hardened  observer  of  historical  incidents 
as  Sargent  describes  the  scene  as  "grand,  impressive,  and 
imposing,"  and  "even  solemn,"  as  though  "some  terrible  rite 
was  to  be  performed,  some  bloody  sacrifice  to  be  made  upon 
the  altar  of  Moloch." l 

"What object?"  he  demanded.  Was  it  necessary  because 
of  the  President?  "In  one  hand,"  he  continued,  "he  holds 
the  purse,  and  in  the  other  he  brandishes  the  sword  of  the 
country.  Myriads  of  dependents  and  partisans,  scattered 
all  over  the  land,  are  ever  ready  to  sing  hosannas  to  him,  and 
to  laud  to  the  skies  whatever  he  does.  He  has  swept  over  the 
Government  during  the  last  eight  years  like  a  tropical  tor 
nado.  Every  department  exhibits  traces  of  the  ravages  of  the 
storm.  .  .  .  What  object  of  his  ambition  is  unsatisfied?  When, 
disabled  from  age  any  longer  to  hold  the  scepter  of  power,  he 
designates  his  successor,  and  transmits  it  to  his  favorite, 
what  more  does  he  want?  Must  we  blot,  deface,  and  muti 
late  the  records  of  the  country,  to  punish  the  presumptuous- 
ness  of  expressing  any  opinion  contrary  to  his  own? 

"What  object?  "  demanded  Clay.  "Do  you  intend  to  thrust 
your  hands  into  our  hearts  and  pluck  out  the  deeply  rooted 
convictions  which  are  there?  Or  is  it  your  design  merely  to 

1  Sargent  describes  Clay's  manner  and  the  effect,  Public  Men  and  Events,  i,  337-39. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  467 

stigmatize  us?  Standing  securely  upon  our  conscious  recti 
tude,  and  bearing  aloft  the  Constitution  of  our  country, 
your  puny  efforts  are  impotent;  and  we  defy  all  your  power. 

"What  object?"  reiterated  the  orator.  "To  please  the 
President?  He  would  reject,  with  scorn  and  contempt  as  un 
worthy  of  his  fame,  your  black  scratches  and  your  baby  lines 
in  the  fair  records  of  his  country.  Black  lines.  Black  lines.  .  . . 
And  hereafter,  when  we  shall  lose  the  forms  of  our  free  insti 
tutions,  all  that  now  remain  to  us,  some  future  American 
monarch,  in  gratitude  to  those  by  whose  means  he  has  been 
enabled,  upon  the  ruins  of  civil  liberty,  to  erect  a  throne,  and 
to  commemorate  especially  this  expunging  resolution,  may 
institute  a  new  order  of  knighthood,  and  confer  on  it  the 
appropriate  name  of  the  *  Knights  of  the  Black  Lines." 

But  why  continue,  he  inquired,  as  he  closed  his  fierce 
philippic.  "Proceed  then  with  your  noble  work.  .  .  .  And 
when  you  have  perpetrated  it,  go  home  to  the  people,  and 
tell  them  what  glorious  honors  you  have  achieved  for  our 
common  country.  Tell  them  that  you  have  extinguished 
one  of  the  brightest  and  purest  lights  that  ever  burned  on 
the  altar  of  civil  liberty.  Tell  them  that  you  have  silenced 
one  of  the  noblest  batteries  that  ever  thundered  in  defense 
of  the  Constitution,  and  bravely  spiked  the  cannon.  Tell 
them  that  henceforth,  no  matter  what  daring  or  outrageous 
act  any  President  may  perform,  you  have  forever  hermet 
ically  sealed  the  mouth  of  the  Senate.  Tell  them  that  he  may 
fearlessly  assume  what  powers  he  pleases,  snatch  from  its 
lawful  custody  the  public  purse,  and  command  a  military 
detachment  to  enter  the  halls  of  the  Capitol,  overawe 
Congress,  trample  down  the  Constitution,  and  raze  every 
bulwark  of  freedom;  but  that  the  Senate  must  stand  mute, 
in  silent  submission,  and  not  dare  to  raise  its  opposing 


voice." 


Such  the  theatrical  strain  of  a  speech  which  the  school 
boys  of  well-regulated  Whig  families  were  to  declaim  for  the 


468    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

delight  of  their  elders  for  a  generation,  and  to  call  forth 
a  fulsome  note  from  the  sober-minded  Kent. 

As  Clay  sat  down,  James  Buchanan  rose  to  reply,  admit 
ting  that  it  was  the  part  of  prudence  to  remain  silent  after 
the  Whig  orator  had  "enchanted  the  attention  of  his  audi 
ence."  Fluent,  logical,  if  not  eloquent,  he  followed  Clay's 
speech  point  by  point,  rehashing  with  him  the  Bank  con 
troversy  —  leading  up  to  the  removal  of  the  deposits  and 
the  vote  of  censure  —  defending  Jackson  at  every  step.  If 
Jackson's  act  was  one  of  tyranny,  unconstitutional,  aimed 
at  civil  liberty,  why,  he  demanded,  "had  the  Whigs  merely 
censured  him  without  giving  him  the  opportunity  to  reply? 
Why  had  they  not  done  their  duty  and  instituted  impeach 
ment  proceedings?  True,  they  insisted  that  they  had  not 
imputed  any  criminal  motive  to  the  President  — " 

Clay  was  instantly  on  his  feet,  hotly  insisting  that  "per 
sonally  he  had  never  acquitted  the  President  of  improper 
intentions."  To  which  the  courtly  Buchanan  replied  with  a 
compliment  to  the  Kentuckian's  "frank  and  manly  nature," 
and  passed  on. 

The  Whigs  now  attempted  to  adjourn,  but  Benton's  drilled 
forces  were  on  hand  to  vote  down  Bayard's  motion,  and  the 
debate  proceeded.  Other  speakers  followed,  men  of  lesser 
light,  while  the  Senators  themselves,  satiated  with  the  argu 
ments,  began  to  pass  out  in  twos  and  threes  to  regale  and 
refresh  themselves  in  Benton's  room.  Such  of  the  Whigs  as 
were  not  too  bitter  were  cordially  invited  to  partake  of  the 
feast,  and  some  accepted.  Clay  sent  some  of  his  friends  to 
the  committee  room  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  the  attraction, 
and  the  emissaries  lingered  too  long  over  the  meat,  and  espe 
cially  the  drink,  and  he  became  furious.  With  the  coming  of 
night  the  curious  packed  the  corridors  and  lobbies,  and  the 
great  chandelier  which  lighted  the  little  chamber  shed  its 
glow  on  the  gay  dresses  of  the  ladies  of  fashion,  many  of 
whom  had  been  admitted  to  the  floor. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  469 

As  the  hour  grew  late,  and  there  was  a  pause  in  the 
debate,  the  eyes  of  all  were  fixed  on  Webster,  who  sat  gloom 
ily  in  his  seat.  He  glanced  around  to  see  if  others  proposed 
to  speak,  then  rose  to  make  the  final  protest.  An  eye-witness 
tells  us  that  "his  dark  visage  assumed  a  darker  hue"; 
that  "his  deep-toned  voice  seemed  almost  sepulchral."  *  As 
was  his  custom,  he  spoke  with  more  moderation  than 
Clay,  Calhoun,  or  Preston,  and  was  all  the  more  impres 
sive  on  that  account.  He  refrained  from  hysterical  denun 
ciations,  and  from  comparisons  with  the  degenerate  days 
of  Rome.  "But,"  he  said,  "we  make  up  our  minds  to  be 
hold  the  spectacle  which  is  to  ensue.  We  collect  ourselves 
to  look  on  in  silence  while  a  scene  is  exhibited  which,  if 
we  do  not  regard  it  as  a  ruthless  violation  of  a  sacred  in 
strument,  would  appear  to  us  to  be  but  little  elevated  above 
the  character  of  a  contemptible  farce.  This  scene  we  shall 
behold,  and  hundreds  of  American  citizens  —  as  many  as 
may  crowd  into  these  lobbies  and  galleries  —  will  behold  it 
also  —  with  what  feelings  I  do  not  undertake  to  say." 

Reiterating,  then,  his  protest,  he  concluded:  "Having 
made  this  protest,  our  duty  is  performed.  We  rescue  our  own 
names,  characters,  and  honor  from  all  participation  in  this 
matter;  and  whatever  the  wayward  character  of  the  times, 
the  headlong  and  plunging  spirit  of  party  devotion,  or  the 
fear  or  the  love  of  power,  may  have  been  able  to  bring  about 
elsewhere*  we  desire  to  thank  God  that  we  have  not,  as  yet, 
overcome  the  love  of  liberty,  fidelity  to  true  republican 
principles,  and  a  sacred  regard  for  the  Constitution,  in  that 
State  whose  soil  was  drenched  to  a  mire  by  the  first  and  best 
blood  of  the  Revolution." 

While  Webster  was  speaking,  two  Whig  Senators,  realizing 
that  the  contest  had  degenerated  into  a  trial  of  nerves  and 
muscle,  went  to  Ben  ton  with  the  suggestion  that  nothing 
could  be  gained  by  delaying  the  vote.2  When  no  one  rose  to 

1  Sargent,  Public  Men  and  Events  I,  341.  2  Thirty  Years'  View,  i,  730. 


470    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

continue  the  argument  at  the  conclusion,  there  was  a  moment 
of  silence  and  then  the  cry  of  "Question  "  rose.  The  roll  was 
called,  with  forty-three  Senators  in  their  seats,  five  absent, 
and  the  resolution  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  24  to  19. 

Benton  instantly  demanded  the  execution  of  the  order  of 
the  Senate.  While  the  clerk  was  out  to  get  the  original  jour 
nal,  Benton,  in  perfect  ecstasy,  ostentatiously  congratulated 
persons  in  the  lower  gallery,  until  the  glowering  countenance 
of  Balie  Peyton  warned  him  of  a  possible  explosion.1  But 
the  Tennessee  firebrand  was  not  the  only  person  in  the  gal 
lery,  or,  for  that  matter,  on  the  floor,  with  a  deadly  hate  of 
Benton  in  the  heart.  The  galleries  remained  true  to  the  Bank 
and  Biddle,  and  some  of  the  Senators,  having  freely  indulged 
themselves,  were  in  a  quarrelsome  mood.  Fear  was  enter 
tained  for  Benton's  life  by  some  of  his  friends,  including  his 
wife.  Just  previous  to  the  vote,  Senator  Linn  had  brought  in 
pistols  for  the  defense,  if  required,  and  Mrs.  Benton,  seriously 
alarmed,  took  her  place  by  her  husband's  side  on  the  floor. 
As  the  clerk  returned  with  the  record,  the  defeated  states 
men,  pretending  to  a  patriotism  that  could  not  look  upon  the 
"deed,"  filed  out  of  the  chamber  —  all  but  Hugh  Lawson 
White  who  never  deserted  his  post.  As  the  President  pro  tern. 
announced  that  the  "deed  "  was  done,  the  hitherto  sullen  and 
silent  gallery  broke  into  groans,  hisses,  imprecations.  En 
raged  and  excited,  Benton  sprang  to  his  feet  with  the  demand 
that  the  "  ruffians  "  that  caused  the  disturbance  be  appre 
hended  and  brought  to  the  bar.  "I  hope  the  sergeant-at-arms 
will  be  directed  to  enter  the  gallery,  and  seize  the  ruffians.  .  . . 
Let  him  seize  the  Bank  ruffians.  I  hope  they  will  not  be  suf 
fered  to  insult  the  Senate  as  they  did  when  it  was  under  the 
power  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  when  ruffians,  with 
arms  upon  them,  insulted  us  with  impunity.  .  .  .  Here  is  one 
just  above  me  that  may  easily  be  identified  —  the  Bank 
ruffians!" 

\    »  Wise,  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  143. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  ;  471 

Thus  the  ringleader  was  dragged  to  the  bar.  But  here  was 
a  diversion  that  had  not  entered  into  the  agreement  as  to  de 
tails  at  Boulanger's  on  Saturday  night,  and  the  wrangle  that 
followed  ended  in  the  discharge  of  the  culprit  from  custody. 
As  the  vote  to  discharge  was  announced,  the  person  in  cus 
tody  demanded  to  be  heard.  "Begone!"  cried  King,  in  the 
chair  —  and  the  incident  was  closed.  But  Benton's  blood 
was  hot,  and  on  leaving  the  Capitol  he  encountered  Clay, 
whom  he  suspected  of  having  instigated  the  gallery  dis 
turbance,  and  a  bitter  altercation  resulted.  But  after  the  two 
men,  personally  not  unfriendly  and  related  by  marriage,  had 
exercised  their  vituperative  vocabulary,  Benton  insisted  on 
seeing  Clay  home,  and  did  not  leave  until  three  in  the  morn 
ing  when  Clay  had  sought  his  couch.  Thus  ended  a  dramatic 
episode  —  so  dramatic  and  historic  that  on  the  following 
morning  Webster  requested  Henry  A.  Wise  to  prepare  a  de 
scription  which  was  afterwards  given  in  an  address  at 
Norfolk.1 

The  triumph,  we  may  be  sure,  was  sweet  to  the  stricken 
veteran  in  the  White  House.  Within  a  week  he  invited  all 
his  senatorial  friends  and  their  wives  to  an  elaborate  dinner. 
Hovering  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  he  dragged  himself  from 
his  bed  to  greet  his  guests,  accompanied  them  to  the  dining- 
room,  seated  Benton  in  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  table,  and 
retired  to  his  couch,  while  the  celebration  below  continued 
until  a  late  hour. 

ra 

last  days  of  Jackson  in  the  White  House  could  not 
have  been  other  than  days  of  joyous  thanksgiving.  Entering 
the  White  House  the  most  popular  of  all  Americans,  eight 
years  of  the  most  bitter  controversies  in  the  Nation's  history 
had  only  tended  to  strengthen  the  affections  of  the  people. 
Through  the  greater  part  of  his  Presidency  he  had  been  con- 
1  Wise,  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union,  144. 


472    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

stantly  harassed  by  a  hostile  Senate,  and  his  enemies  had 
been  defeated  or  otherwise  retired,  until  now  both  branches 
of  the  Congress  were  devoted  to  his  policies.  His  most 
powerful  enemies  had  been  humiliated.  The  prize  of  the 
Presidency  dangling  before  Calhoun  in  the  beginning  was 
now  forever  beyond  his  reach.  Clay  had  been  defeated  in  his 
ambition  and  shamefully  set  aside  by  his  ungrateful  party. 
The  man  of  his  own  choice  had  been  elected  to  succeed  him, 
and  the  hated  censure  of  the  Senate  had  been  expunged  by 
the  order  of  the  people.  Few  Presidents  have  ever  departed 
from  the  scene  of  their  power  with  more  for  which  to  be  grate 
ful  and  less  to  regret.j  fi 

But  the  old  man  had  run  his  race  and  been  surfeited  with 
the  sweets  of  personal  triumphs,  and  was  eager  to  return 
to  the  calm  of  his  beloved  Hermitage,  among  his  old  and 
cherished  friends  and  faithful  slaves,  and  near  to  the  tomb 
of  his  idolized  Rachel.  By  sheer  will  power  he  had  fought 
back  the  specter  which  had  hovered  by  his  sick-bed,  to  this 
end.  Confined  to  his  room  most  of  the  time,  debilitated  by 
age  and  disease,  the  old  man's  mind  was  not  free  from  anxi 
eties  for  the  future  of  his  country.  He  knew  too  well  the  tem 
per  of  public  men,  and  comprehended  too  keenly  the  delicate 
problems  pressing  for  solution,  not  to  know  that  there  were 
dangers  ahead.  It  was  his  desire  to  give  some  parting 
advice  to  the  people  in  his  final  Message,  but  he  was  per 
suaded  to  convey  his  last  word  in  the  form  of  a  "  Farewell," 
like  Washington.  To  the  preparation  of  this  paper  he  de 
voted  much  time  and  thought  during  the  last  two  months, 
and,  while  he  had  the  assistance  of  Roger  B.  Taney  in  the 
phrasing  of  his  thoughts,  all  the  ideas,  and  much  of  the  lan 
guage,  originated  with  him.  Strangely  enough,  the  "Fare 
well  "  of  Jackson  is  scarcely  known,  and  some  historians  are 
prone  to  smile  upon  it  as  an  unworthy  imitation  of  the  Wash 
ington  paper.  It  was  nothing  of  the  sort.  It  smacks,  in 
large  part,  of  prophecy.  The  man  who  wrote  it  saw,  in  fancy, 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  473 

the  swaying  columns  of  the  blue  and  gray,  and  he  strove  to 
avert  the  clash.  The  old  hero  of  the  Nullification  fight,  feeble 
and  sick,  bending  over  his  desk  in  the  White  House  of  1837, 
was  writing  and  pleading  in  the  spirit  of  the  Lincoln  of  1861 
as  he  wrote  his  touching  inaugural  appeal  for  peace.1  Hav 
ing  finished  his  "Farewell,"  to  be  given  out  on  the  day  of 
leaving  office,  the  old  man  impatiently  awaited  his  release. 
His  friends,  he  knew,  would  not  suffer  by  the  change.  The 
Jackson  Cabinet  was  to  be  continued,  with  the  exception  of 
Cass,  who  was  to  be  sent  to  France,  thus  making  way  for 
Joel  Poinsett,  who  had  been  Jackson's  right  hand  in  the 
Nullification  struggle. 

On  Washington's  birthday  he  received  the  public  in  a 
farewell  reception,  famous  because  of  the  mammoth  cheese 
donated  by  admirers,  greater  in  circumference  than  a  hogs 
head.  Two  men  with  knives  made  from  saw  blades  cut  into 
the  enormous  mass,  giving  each  guest  a  piece  weighing  from 
two  to  three  pounds.  Some,  who  had  provided  themselves 
with  paper,  wrapped  their  portion  and  bore  it  away  as  a 
souvenir;  others,  not  so  thoughtful,  carried  theirs  in  their 
hands.  Much  of  it  crumbled  in  the  hands  of  the  bearers  and 
was  trampled  on  the  floor.  It  was  Jackson's  farewell,  and 
thousands  pushed  their  way  into  the  White  House,  and,  after 
getting  their  portion  of  the  cheese,  pressed  on  into  the  Blue 
Room,  where  the  President,  much  too  feeble  to  stand,  re 
ceived  and  greeted  his  visitors  from  his  chair.  Beside  him 
stood  the  cordial  Mrs.  Donelson,  while  just  behind  him  Mar 
tin  Van  Buren  greeted  all  with  a  smile  and  a  courtly  bow.2 

IV 

THE  Jackson  of  the  White  House  would  have  commanded 
attention  in  any  assembly,  even  to  the  last.  More  than  six 
feet  in  height  and  slender  to  attenuation,  his  limbs  long  and 

1  Richardson,  Messages  and  Papers. 

2  Wilson,  Washington  tlie  Capital  City,  i,  328. 


471    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

straight,  and  his  shoulders  slightly  stooped,  he  carried  him 
self  proudly,  and  not  without  grace.  His  white  hair  stood 
erect,  giving  a  full  view  of  a  forehead  that  indicated  intel 
lectual  power.  His  eyes,  deep-set,  clear  but  small,  were 
blue  in  color  and  noticeably  penetrating,  and  the  great  spec 
tacles  he  wore  accentuated  their  boring  quality.  These  eyes, 
flashing  with  the  fierceness  of  the  fight,  could  easily  melt,  in 
tenderness,  to  tears.  His  strong  cheek-bones  and  lantern 
jaws  denoted  the  warrior.  His  strongly  chiseled  chin  and 
firm  mouth  told  of  his  inflexibility.  His  chest  was  flat,  and 
indicated  his  most  pronounced  physical  weakness.  Seen 
upon  his  walks  about  Washington,  wearing  his  high  white 
beaver  hat,  with  his  widower's  weed,  and  carrying  a  stout 
cane  adorned  with  a  silken  tassel,  he  looked  the  part  of  the 
patriarch  who  could  either  bestow  a  benediction  or  a  blow. 
Throughout  his  two  terms  his  health  was  wretched,  and  time 
and  again,  stricken  with  disease,  his  death  had  seemed  only 
a  matter  of  days,  but  the  iron  will  prevailed  over  the  failing 
flesh.  His  hair  grew  whiter.  The  lines  in  his  face  deepened. 
His  step  lost  some  of  its  spring.  He  was  forced  to  abandon 
his  long  walks  and  the  pleasures  of  the  saddle,  and  remain 
more  and  more  in  the  White  House.  But  the  eye  retained  its 
fire,  his  voice  its  fervor,  and  his  spirit  never  flagged.  In 
moments  of  relaxation,  toward  the  close,  there  was  a  softened 
expression,  but  in  his  fighting  moments  he  differed  little  from 
the  grim  old  man  who  entered  the  mansion  of  the  Presidents 
as  Adams  took  his  departure. 

The  libels  of  his  enemies  of  the  Whig  aristocracy  notwith 
standing,  he  had  not  been  unworthy,  socially,  of  the  stately 
traditions  of  his  environment,  and  had  impressed  all  visitors 
with  his  fine  courtesy,  courtliness,  ability,  and  graciousness.1 
Never  before  or  afterwards  were  there  such  incongruous 

1  Mrs.  Wharton,  Social  Life  of  the  Republic,  261 ;  Wise,  Seven  Decades  of  the 
Union,  81;  Seward,  Autobiography,  I,  278;  Frederick  Seward,  Reminiscences  of  a 
War-Time  Statesman  and  Diplomat,  17;  Quincy,  Figures  of  the  Past;  Powers,  Im 
pressions  of  America. 


tWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  475 

crowds  at  the  receptions,  but  this  disclosed  less  the  taste  of 
the  master  of  the  Mansion  than  his  political  principles;  and 
his  dinners  in  tone  and  taste  commanded  the  admiration  of 
his  enemies.1  These  receptions  and  dinners  had  drawn  heav 
ily  on  his  resources,  and  toward  the  close  left  him  seriously 
embarrassed.  He  himself  could  have  lived  on  monastic  fare. 
A  weak  stomach  forced  him  to  eat  sparingly,  and  he  often 
dined  on  bread,  milk,  and  vegetables;  but  there  were  always 
guests  at  the  table,  which  was  invariably  ladened  as  for  a 
feast.2 

Perhaps  it  was  not  without  regret  that  he  passed  through 
the  rooms  of  the  historic  house  in  those  last  days,  for  he 
had  converted  the  White  House  into  a  home,  and  it  was 
rich  in  memories  of  the  sort  that  tug  at  the  heart.  Fond  of 
his  family,  and  especially  of  the  young  women  members, 
this  "home"  had  been  the  scene  of  several  marriages  and 
christenings.  The  beautiful  Emily  Donelson,  the  wife  of  his 
secretary  and  niece,  the  mistress  of  the  mansion,  had  presided 
with  grace  and  dignity  and  brightened  the  days  and  nights. 
In  a  physical  sense  she  was  an  exquisite  woman,  of  medium 
height,  her  figure  slender  and  symmetrical,  her  hands  and 
feet  as  tiny  as  a  child's.  Her  hair  and  eyes  were  a  dark  brown, 
her  lips  beautifully  moulded,  her  complexion  fair.  Many 
found  in  her  a  striking  resemblance  to  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
as  she  appears  in  her  pictures.  Her  taste  in  dress  was  beyond 
reproach,  and  soon  after  entering  the  White  House  her  toi 
lette  was  "the  envy  and  admiration  of  the  fashionable 
circles."  3  Her  judgment  in  social  matters  was  infallible,  and 
Jackson  depended  upon  her  advice.  "You  know  best,  my 
dear,  do  as  you  please,"  was  his  only  suggestion  when  deli 
cate  problems  were  submitted  to  him.  Fond  of  society,  vi 
vacious,  dignified,  and  always  gracious,  she  not  only  com- 

1  Hone's  Diary,  March  15,  1832;  Life  and  Letters  of  Story,  n,  117. 
'    *  Letter  of  John  Fairfield,  quoted  from  manuscript  by  Professor  Bassett  in  his 
Life  of  Jackson. 
t  »  Holloway,  Ladies  of  the  White  House. 


476    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

manded  admiration,  but  affection.  An  excellent  conversa 
tionalist,  she  possessed  the  art,  so  seldom  found  in  good 
talkers,  of  being  an  ingratiating  listener.  In  contact  with 
the  brightest  minds  of  the  capital,  she  lost  nothing  by  the 
comparison.  "Madame,  you  dance  with  the  grace  of  a  Pa 
risian,"  remarked  a  condescending  foreign  minister.  "I  can 
hardly  realize  that  you  were  born  in  Tennessee."  "  Count," 
she  retorted,  "you  forget  that  grace  is  a  cosmopolite,  and, 
like  a  wild  flower,  is  much  oftener  found  in  the  woods  than 
in  the  streets  of  a  city."  During  her  days  in  the  White  House 
her  four  children  were  born,  and  Jackson,  who  was  delighted 
to  have  childhood  about  him,  took  a  keen  interest  in  their 
christenings.  He  was  godfather  for  two,  Van  Buren  for  one, 
and  Polk  —  all  Presidents  —  for  the  other. 

Another  of  the  White  House  women  was  Sarah  Yorke 
Jackson,  daughter  of  Peter  Yorke,  of  Philadelphia,  and  wife 
of  another  nephew.  She  was  much  younger  than  Mrs.  Donel- 
son,  having  been  married  but  a  short  time  before  the  inau 
guration,  but  Jackson,  fearing  some  misunderstanding  as 
to  precedence,  called  them  together  and  announced  his  will. 
"You,  my  dear,"  he  said  to  Mrs.  Jackson,  "are  mistress  of 
the  Hermitage,  and  Emily  is  hostess  of  the  White  House." 
The  arrangement  was  satisfactory  to  both,  and  no  misunder 
standings  marred  their  relations.  Mrs.  Jackson  was  happily 
indifferent  to  social  prestige,  but  in  the  spirit  of  helpfulness 
did  her  part.  Highly  accomplished  and  beautiful,  graceful, 
and  possessed  of  wonderful  poise  in  one  so  young,  she  was 
intensely  devoted  to  Jackson,  and  the  old  man  reciprocated 
the  affection  in  full  measure. 

Usually,  in  the  evening,  Jackson  gathered  his  family  about 
him,  and  if  Senators,  diplomats,  or  Cabinet  Ministers  ap 
peared,  they  were  drawn  into  the  family  circle.  If  the  busi 
ness  which  brought  them  happened  to  be  of  importance,  he 
would,  perhaps,  draw  them  into  a  distant  part  of  the  simply 
furnished  parlor  which  was  lighted  from  above  by  a  chande- 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  477 

Her.  In  the  winter  the  fire  blazed  in  the  grate,  and,  arranging 
their  chairs  about  the  fireplace,  the  women  applied  them 
selves  to  their  sewing  while  gossiping  of  the  events  of  the  day. 
Here  would  be  found  Mrs.  Jackson  and  Mrs.  Donelson,  per 
haps  Mrs.  Livingston,  possibly  Mrs.  McLane,  or  some  other 
woman  of  the  White  House  circle.  Playing  about  the  room 
would  be  five  or  six  children  in  irreverent  disregard  of  the  old 
man  in  the  long  loose  coat,  seated  in  an  armchair,  smoking 
his  long  reed-stem  pipe  with  a  red  clay  bowl.  Mayhap  Liv 
ingston  or  Van  Buren  or  Forsyth  would  be  reading  him  an 
important  dispatch  from  a  foreign  minister,  while  the  chil 
dren,  with  their  shouts  and  screams,  would  all  but  drown  the 
voice  of  the  visitor.  Nothing  disturbed  by  the  clamor,  the 
old  man  would  bend  forward  and  listen  more  intently.  Per 
haps  he  would  wave  his  long-stemmed  pipe  toward  the  row 
dies,  with  an  apologetic  smile.  But  never  a  cross  word. 

The  hour  for  retirement  would  come.  The  children  would 
withdraw  and  be  tucked  in  their  beds.  The  President  would 
go  to  his  room.  There  he  would  sit  awhile  at  the  table,  and, 
by  the  light  of  a  single  candle,  would  read  a  chapter  from  the 
Bible  that  had  belonged  to  Rachel,  and  then  gaze  awhile 
at  her  picture  propped  up  before  him.  The  light  would  be 
snuffed.  The  old  man  would  retire,  and  the  negro  bodyguard 
would  lie  down  on  the  floor  and  join  his  master  in  sleep.  Sud 
denly  a  child's  cry  would  penetrate  the  President's  chamber, 
and  he  would  awaken  —  and  listen.  Then  he  would  get  up, 
go  to  the  room  of  the  little  one,  and,  brushing  objections 
aside,  take  it  in  his  arms  and  walk  the  floor  with  it  until  it 
slept.  This  was  not  an  unusual  occurrence.1 

After  breakfasting  in  the  morning,  Jackson  would  go  to  his 
office,  on  the  second  floor,  and,  lighting  his  pipe,  would  settle 
down  to  the  routine  work  of  the  day.  Bookshelves  lined  the 
room.  Busts  of  the  President,  the  work  of  various  sculptors, 

1  Holloway,  Ladies  of  the  White  House,  and  Mary  Crawford,  Romantic  Days  of  the 
Young  Republic,  22-23. 


478    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

and  a  number  of  portraits,  all  by  Earle,  looked  upon  the  orig 
inal  from  shelves  and  tables.  There  flocked  the  politicians, 
Lewis  with  a  report,  Blair  with  a  leader,  Kendall  with  a  pro 
gramme.  There  he  planned  and  fought  his  battles  with  the 
politicians,  but  when  evening  came  he  looked  forward  to 
the  joys  of  domesticity,  or  the  diversions  of  the  company  of 
women  upon  whom  he  looked  "with  the  most  romantic,  pure, 
and  poetic  devotion.1  The  accomplished  Mrs.  Livingston 
would  enliven  him  with  her  vivacious  conversation  on  all 
manner  of  topics,  her  daughter  Cora  would  delight  him  with 
her  animation  and  wit,  and  his  eyes  would  fill  when  Mrs. 
Philip  Hamilton,  daughter  of  McLane,  responded  to  his  never- 
failing  invitation  to  play  and  sing  his  favorite  song  from 
Burns.  Mrs.  McLane,  an  attractive  and  entertaining  chat 
terbox,  with  interested  motives  for  attempting  to  fascinate 
the  old  warrior,  was  always  a  welcome  diversion,  and  Mrs. 
Rives,  the  stately  wife  of  the  Virginia  Senator;  Mrs.  Macomb, 
wife  of  the  General;  and  Sallie  Coles  Stevenson,  who  re 
sembled  Mrs.  Livingston  in  intelligence  and  tact,  were  fre 
quent  guests.  These  had  given  to  the  White  House  some 
thing  of  the  charm  of  the  Hermitage;  but  at  times,  in  the 
bitterness  of  the  continual  struggle,  when  the  old  man  grew 
weary  of  the  bauble  of  power,  and  felt  his  faith  in  mankind 
slipping,  and  homesickness  for  the  Hermitage  possessing  him, 
he  had  often  laid  aside  the  cares  of  state,  turned  his  back 
upon  the  scene  of  his  struggle  and  the  house  of  his  triumphs, 
and  walked  across  the  Avenue  to  the  home  of  the  Blairs, 
where  he  knew  he  could  find  a  haven  of  rest.  There  he  knew 
he  could  appear,  not  as  the  head  of  the  State,  but  as  Andrew 
Jackson  of  the  Hermitage.  It  became  his  second  home.  There 
he  could  forget  his  enemies,  and,  in  the  homey  atmosphere 
of  a  house  pervaded  by  the  personality  of  a  sincere  and  unaf 
fected  woman,  he  could  revive  his  fainting  spirits. 

But  he  was  surfeited  with  triumphs,  and  the  Hermitage 

1  Wise,  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union. 


TWILIGHT  TRIUMPHS  \  479 

called  him  home  to  the  tomb  of  Rachel.   The  twilight  was 
closing  in  upon  him.  He  knew  it  was  time  to  go. 


THE  dawn  of  inauguration  day  found  him  so  ill  and  debili 
tated  that  he  should  have  remained  in  bed,  but  the  soldier 
spirit  of  the  man  refused  to  yield  to  the  promptings  of  the 
flesh.  He  was  up  early,  doing  his  full  part.  The  day  was  ideal 
—  as  Van  Buren  had  promised  Clay.  The  clear  sky,  the 
bright,  cheery  sunshine,  the  balmy  air  could  not  have  been 
better  ordered  for  the  distinguished  invalid.  A  great  throng 
stretched  back  from  the  east  front  of  the  Capitol  to  witness 
the  historic  scene,  and  the  eastern  windows  were  packed  with 
the  more  favored  spectators.  It  was  plainly  to  be  seen  from 
the  attitude  of  the  multitude  that  the  real  reverence  and  en 
thusiasm  was  for  the  leader  whose  race  was  run,  rather  than 
for  his  successor.  "For  once,"  observed  Benton,  "the  rising 
was  eclipsed  by  the  setting  sun."  The  old  man,  feeble  and 
bowed,  sat  listening  to  the  inaugural  address  of  the  man  he 
had  elevated  to  the  highest  office  in  the  world.  Van  Buren 
concluded.  Jackson  rose  and  began  slowly  to  descend  the 
steps  of  the  portico  to  his  carriage  which  was  waiting  to  con 
vey  him  back  to  the  White  House.  At  that  moment,  the 
pent-up  feelings  of  the  crowd  burst  forth  in  cheers  and  ac 
clamations.  "  It  was  the  acclaim  of  posterity  breaking  from 
the  bosom  of  contemporaries,"  wrote  Benton.  The  old  man, 
deeply  touched  to  tenderness  and  humility,  acknowledged 
his  appreciation  by  mute  signs.  From  one  of  the  upper  win 
dows  a  rough  fighting  man  witnessed  the  scene  with  an  emo 
tion  he  had  never  felt  before.  From  thence,  Benton  looked 
down  upon  the  close  of  a  memorable  "reign,"  of  which  he 
was  to  become  the  historian  as  he  had  been  its  defender. 

That  night  Jackson  slept  as  usual  in  the  White  House  as 
the  guest  of  President  Van  Buren,  who  insisted  that  he  re 
main  in  his  old  quarters  until  in  May  or  June  the  trip  back 


480    PARTY  BATTLES  OF  THE  JACKSON  PERIOD 

to  the  Hermitage  could  be  made  in  greater  comfort,  but  the 
journey  held  no  terrors  for  the  homesick  statesman.  The  fol 
lowing  afternoon  he  walked  across  the  Avenue  to  the  home 
of  Frank  Blair  for  a  final  visit  with  the  family  within  whose 
bosom  he  had  passed  many  joyous  hours  during  the  eight 
years  of  storm  and  stress.  A  little  later,  Benton  called  with 
William  Allen,  then  Senator  from  Ohio,  and  for  many  years 
the  world  knew  nothing  of  the  nature  of  that  final  conference. 
Benton  himself  was  mysteriously  silent,  nor  did  he  furnish 
any  enlightenment  in  his  great  history  of  the  "Thirty  Years." 
But  long  after  most  of  the  participants  in  the  politics  of  that 
day  were  mouldering  in  the  grave,  Blair  and  Allen  told  the 
story  to  one  of  the  President's  biographers.  Jackson  talked, 
and  the  others  listened.  He  told  them  of  his  two  principal 
regrets  —  that  he  had  never  had  an  opportunity  to  shoot 
Clay  or  to  hang  Calhoun.  He  had  no  regrets  because  of  his 
crushing  of  the  Bank,  nor  because  of  his  encouragement  of 
the  spoils  system.  But  he  left  office  feeling  that  his  work 
would  have  been  more  nearly  completed  if  Texas  had  been 
annexed  and  the  Oregon  boundary  dispute  had  been  settled 
at  fifty -four-forty.  To  his  loyal  supporters  he  left  one  admo 
nition  that  afternoon: 

"Of  all  things,  never  once  take  your  eyes  off  Texas,  and 
never  let  go  of  fifty-four-forty." 

The  following  day  witnessed  his  departure.  He  took  with 
him  the  picture  of  Rachel  which  had  been  upon  his  desk 
through  his  eight  years  of  trial,  her  Bible,  to  which  he  had 
been  devoted,  her  protege  Earle,  the  artist,  who  was  to  re 
main  with  him  at  the  Hermitage,  and  to  be  buried  in  its 
peaceful  shade. 

Thus  ended  the  reign  of  Andrew  Jackson. 


THE    END 


BOOKS,  PAPERS,  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 
CITED  AND  CONSULTED 


BOOKS,  PAPERS,  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 
CITED  AND  CONSULTED 

ABDY,  EDWARD  S.,  Journal  of  a  Tour  of  the  United  States.  3  vols.  London, 
1835. 

ADAMS,  JOHN  QUINCY,  Memoirs  of,  ed.  by  C.  F.  Adams.  12  vols.  Phila 
delphia,  1876. 

AMBLER,  CHARLES  HENRY,  Thomas  Ritchie:  A  Study  of  Virginia  Politics. 
Richmond,  1913. 

Anonymous,  Life  of  Lewis  Cass.  Detroit,  1848. 

BABER,  GEORGE,  The  Blairs  of  Kentucky.  Register  Kentucky  Historical 
Society,  xiv. 

BASSETT,  JOHN  SPENCER,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson.  2  vols.  New  York, 
1911. 

BENNETT,  JAMES  GORDON.   See  Isaac  C.  Pray. 

BENTON,  THOMAS  H.,  Thirty  Years'  View,  or  a  History  of  the  Working  of  the 
American  Government  from  1820  to  1850.  New  York,  1861.  See  Theo 
dore  Roosevelt. 

BEVERIDGE,  ALBERT  J.,  Life  of  John  Marshall.  4  vols.   Boston,  1916-19. 

BIDDLE,  NICHOLAS.   See  Reginald  C.  McGrane. 

BINNEY,  C.  N.,  Life  of  Horace  Binney.  Philadelphia,  1903. 

BINNEY,  HORACE.   See  C.  N.  Binney. 

BLAIR,  GIST,  The  Annals  of  Silver  Springs.    Columbian  Historical  Society, 

XXI. 

BRADLEY,  CYRUS  P.,  Life  of  Isaac  Hill.   Concord,  1835. 

BRANCH,  JOHN.   See  Marshall  de  Lancey  Haywood. 

BUCHANAN,  JAMES.   See  John  Bassett  Moore. 

BUELL,  AUGUSTUS  C.,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson.    %  vols.  New  York,  1904. 

BUTLER,  WILLIAM  ALLEN,  A  Retrospect  of  Forty  Years.  New  York,  1911. 

CALHOUN,  JOHN.  See  John  Stilwell  Jenkins,  H.  von  Hoist,  Richard  K. 
Cralle. 

CASS,  LEWIS.  See  Andrew  C.  McLaughlin,  W.  L.  G.  Smith,  William  T. 
Young,  Anonymous. 

CATTERALL,  RALPH  C.  H.,  The  Second  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Univer 
sity  of  Chicago,  1903. 

CLAY,  HENRY.   See  Calvin  Colton,  Carl  Schurz,  Joseph  M.  Rogers. 

CLAYTON,  JOHN  M.   See  Joseph  P.  Comegys. 

COLTON,  CALVIN,  editor,  Works  of  Henry  Clay.  10  vols.  New  York,  1904. 

COMEGYS,  JOSEPH  P.,  Memoir  of  John  M.  Clayton.  Wilmington,  1882.  Pa 
pers,  Historical  Society  of  Delaware,  vol.  4. 


484  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CRALLE,  RICHARD  K,  editor,  Works  of  John  C.  Calhoun.    6  vols.   New 

York,  1883. 

CRAWFORD,  MARY  C.,  Romantic  Days  of  the  Early  Republic.  Boston,  1912. 
CRAWFORD,  WILLIAM  H.   See  J.  E.  D.  Shipp. 
CROCKETT,  DAVY,  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren.   Philadelphia,  1835. 
CURTIS,  GEORGE  TICKNOR,  Life  of  Daniel  Webster.  2  vols.  New  York,  1870. 

DAVIS,  JEFFERSON,  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Government.  2  vols. 
New  York,  1881. 

ELLET,  E.  F.,  Court  Circles  of  the  Republic.  Hartford,  1869. 

FISHER,  SIDNEY  GEORGE,  The  Real  Daniel  Webster.    Philadelphia,  1911. 
FISKE,  JOHN,  Historical  and  Political  Essays.    2  vols.    New  York,  1902. 
FOOTE,  HENRY  S.,  A  Casket  of  Reminiscences.   Washington,  1874. 
FORSYTH,  JOHN,  manuscript  letters. 
FOSTER,  JOHN  W.,  A  Century  of  American  Diplomacy.  Boston,  1901. 

HALE,  EDWARD  EVERETT,  Memories  of  a  Hundred  Years.   2  vols.   New 

York,  1902. 
HAMILTON,  JAMES,  Reminiscences  of  Hamilton,  or  Men  and  Events  at  Home 

and  Abroad  During  Three  Quarters  of  a  Century.   New  York,  1869. 
HAMILTON,  THOMAS,  Men  and  Manners  in  America.  2  vols.  Philadelphia, 

1833. 

HAMMOND,  JABEZ  D.,  Life  of  Silas  Wright.  New  York,  1848. 
HARRISON,  W.  H.   See  H.  Montgomery. 
HART,  ALBERT  BUSHNELL,  American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries. 

New  York,  1902. 

HARVEY,  PETER,  Reminiscences  of  Daniel  Webster.  Boston,  1877. 
HAYNE,  ROBERT  Y.   See  Theodore  Dehon  Jervey. 

HAYWOOD,  MARSHALL  DE  LANCEY,  John  Branch  (pamphlet).  Raleigh,  1915. 
HILL,  Isaac.   See  Cyrus  P.  Bradley. 

HOLLAND,  W.  H.,  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren.   Hartford,  1835. 
HONE,  PHILIP.   Diary.   New  York,  1889. 
HOUSTON,  DAVID  F.,  A  Study  of  Nullification  in  South  Carolina.   New 

York,  1896. 

HUNT,  CHARLES  HAVENS,  Life  of  Edward  Livingston.    New  York.  1902. 
HUNT,  GAILLARD,  First  Forty  Years  of  Washington  Society  (Letters  of  Mrs. 

Samuel  Harrison  Smith).   New  York,  1906. 
HUNT,  LOUISE  LIVINGSTON,  Life  of  Mrs.  Edward  Livingston.  New  York, 

1902. 

JACKSON,  ANDREW.  See  James  Parton,  Augustus  C.  Buell,  John  Spencer 
Bassett,  William  Graham  Sumner,  William  MacDonald,  ^Charles  H. 
Peck,  Francis  Newton  Thorp,  Frederic  Austin  Ogg. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  485 

JACKSON,  R.  P.,  The  Chronicles  of  Georgetown,  Washington,  1878. 
JENKINS,  JOHN  STILWELL,  Life  of  John  C.  Calhoun  (Arlington  edition). 

Life  of  James  K.  Polk.  Buffalo,  1850. 
JERVEY,  THEODORE  DEHON,  Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  His  Times.  New  York, 

1909. 
JOHNSTON,  ALEXANDER,  American  Political  History.    2  vols.  N.  Y.,  1905. 

KEMBLE,  FRANCES  A.,  Records  of  a  Girlhood.  New  York,  1884. 
KENDALL,  AMOS,  Autobiography.  Boston,  1902. 

KENNEDY,  JOHN  P.,  Life  of  William  Wirt,  2  vols.,  Philadelphia,  1849. 
KNIGHT,  LUCIAN  LAMAR,  Reminiscences  of  Famous  Georgians.    Los  An 
geles,  1907. 

LABORDE,  MAXIMILIAN,  History  of  South  Carolina  College.    Columbia, 

1859. 

LEGARE,  HUGH  SWINTON,  Works.  2  vols.,  ed.  by  sister.  Charleston,  1846. 
LINDER,  USHER  F.,  Reminiscences  of  the  Early  Bench  and  Bar  of  Illinois. 

Chicago,  1879. 

LIVINGSTON,  EDWARD.  See  Charles  Havens  Hunt. 
LIVINGSTON,  MRS.  EDWARD.   See  Louise  Livingston  Hunt. 
LODGE,  HENRY  CABOT,  Life  of  Daniel  Webster.  Boston,  1883  (American 

Statesmen). 

MACDONALD,  WILLIAM,  Jacksonian  Democracy.    New  York,  1906  (The 

American  Nation). 

McGRANE,  REGINALD  C.,  Correspondence  of  Nicholas  Biddle.  Boston,  1919. 
McKEE,  THOMAS  H.,  National  Conventions  and  Platforms.  Baltimore, 
'  1906. 

MACKENZIE,  WILLIAM  L.,  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren.  Boston,  1846. 
McKiNNEY,  THOMAS  LORRAINE,  The  Office-Holder's  Sword  of  Damocles.  See 

Albert  Bushnell  Hart. 
MCLAUGHLIN,  ANDREW  C.,  Life  of  Lewis  Cass.  Boston,  1899  (American 

Statesmen). 
MCMASTER,  JOHN  BACH,  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States.  8  vols. 

New  York  (Library  edition),  1914. 

MARCH,  CHARLES  W.,  Reminiscences  of  Congress.    New  York,  1853. 
MARRYAT,  CAPT.  FREDERICK,  A  Diary  in  America.  2  vols.  Philadelphia, 

1839. 
MARTINEAU,  HARRIET,  A  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel.  2  vols.  London, 

1838. 

MILLER,  S.  F.,  The  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia.  2  vols.  Philadelphia. 
MONTGOMERY,  H.,  Life  of  William  Henry  Harrison.  Cleveland,  1852. 
MOORE,  JOHN  BASSETT,  Works  of  Buchanan.  12  vols.  Philadelphia,  1908. 

NORTHERN,  WILLIAM  JONATHAN,  Men  of  Mark  in  Georgia.  Atlanta,  1907. 


486  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

OGG,  FREDERIC  AUSTIN,  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson  (Chronicles  of 

America,  vol.  x.)   Yale  University  Press,  1919. 
O'NEALL,  JAMES  BELTON,  Bench  and  Bar  of  South  Carolina.    2  vols. 

Charleston,  1859. 

'  PARTON,  JAMES,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson.   3  vols.   New  York,  1860. 
PAYNE,  GEORGE  HENRY,  A  Short  History  of  Journalism  in  the  United  States. 

New  York. 

PECK,  CHARLES  H.,  The  Jacksonian  Epoch.   New  York,  1899. 
POINSETT,  JOEL  R.   See  Charles  J.  Stillfi. 
POLK,  JAMES  K.  See  John  Stilwell  Jenkins. 
POORE,  BENJAMIN  PERLEY,  Reminiscences  of  Sixty  Years  in  the  National 

Metropolis.  Z  vols.   Philadelphia,  1886. 
PRAY,  ISAAC  C.,  Memoirs  of  James  Gordon  Bennett.    New  York,  1855. 

QUINCY,  JOSIAH,  Figures  of  the  Past  from  Leaves  of  Old  Journals.  Boston, 
1883. 

RICHARDSON,  JAMES  DANIEL,  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents.  10 
vols.   Washington,  1900. 

ROGERS,  JOSEPH  M.,  The  Real  Henry  Clay.    Philadelphia,  1905. 

Life  of  Thomas  H.  Benton.   Philadelphia,  1905  (American  Crisis). 

ROOSEVELT,  THEODORE,  Life  of  Thomas  H.  Benton.  Boston,  1890  (Ameri 
can  Statesmen). 

SARGENT,  NATHAN,  Public  Men  and  Events.   2  vols.    Philadelphia,  1875. 

SATO,  SHOSUKE,  History  of  the  Land  Question  in  the  United  States.  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies,  iv,  259-441. 

SCHOULER,  JAMES,  History  of  the  United  States  of  America  under  the  Con 
stitution.   5  vols.   New  York,  1889-91. 

SCHURZ,  CARL,  Life  of  Henry  Clay.    2  vols.    Boston,  1887  (American 
Statesmen). 

SCOTT,  NANCY  N.,  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White.    Philadelphia,  1856. 

SEWARD,  FREDERICK,  Reminiscences  of  a  War-Time  Statesman  and  Diplo 
mat.  New  York,  1916. 

SEWARD,  WILLIAM  H.,  Autobiography.   3  vols.  New  York,  1891. 

SHEPARD,  EDWARD  M.,  Life  of  Martin  Van  Buren.  Boston,  1899  (Ameri 
can  Statesmen). 

SHIPP,  J.  E.  D.,  Life  of  William  H.  Crawford.    Americus,  Georgia,  1908. 

SMITH,  OLIVER  H.,  Early  Indiana  Trials  and  Sketches.    Cincinnati,  1858. 

SMITH,  MRS.  SAMUEL  HARRISON.    See  Gaillard  Hunt. 

SMITH,  W.  L.  G.,  Life  of  Lewis  Cass.   New  York,  1856 

SPARKS,  W.  H.,  Memories  of  Fifty  Years.   Philadelphia,  1882. 

STANWOOD,  EDWARD,  History  of  Presidential  Elections  in  the  United  States. 
Boston,  1912. 

American  Tariff  Controversies  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Boston,  1903. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  487 

STILLE,  CHARLES  J.,  Life  and  Services  of  Joel  R.  Poinseit  (pamphlet).  Phila 

delphia,  1888. 

STORY,  JOSEPH.   See  W.  W.  Story. 

STORY,  W.  W.,  Life  and  Letters  of  Joseph  Story.  2  vols.  Boston,  1851. 
SUMNER,  WILLIAM  GRAHAM,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Boston,  1882  (Ameri 

can  Statesmen). 

TANEY,  ROGER  B.  See  Samuel  Tyler. 

TAUSSIG,  F.  W.,  A  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States.  New  York,  1888. 

THORP,  FRANCIS  NEWTON,  The  Statesmanship  of  Andrew  Jackson.   New 

York,  1909. 
TYLER,  LYON  GARDINER,  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers.    2  vols.  Rich 

mond,  1884. 
TYLER,  SAMUEL,  Memoir  of  Roger  Brooke  Taney.    Baltimore,  1872. 


BUREN,  MARTIN,  Autobiography,  edited  by  John  C.  Fitzpatrick. 
American  Historical  Association  Report,  1918,  vol.  il, 
VIGNE,  GODFREY  T.,  Six  Months  in  America.   Philadelphia,  1833. 
VON  HOLST,  H.,    The  Constitutional  and  Political  History  of  the  United 
States.  6  vols.  Chicago,  1889. 

Life  of  John  C.  Calhoun.    Boston,  1886  (American  Statesmen). 

WEBSTER,  DANIEL.   See  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  Peter  Harvey,  George  Tick- 

nor  Curtis,  Sidney  George  Fisher,  and  Fletcher  Webster. 
WEBSTER,  FLETCHER,  Private  Correspondence  of  Daniel  Webster.    2  vols. 

Boston,  1857. 

WEED,  THTJRLOW,  Autobiography.  2  vols.  Boston,  1884. 
WHARTON,  ANNE  HOLLINGSWORTH,  Social  Life  of  the  Early  Republic.  Phila 

delphia,  1902. 

WHITE,  HUGH  LAWSON.   See  Nancy  N.  Scott. 
WILLIS,  N.  P.,  American  Scenery.  3  vols.   London,  1840. 
WILSON,  RUFUS  R.,  Washington  the  Capital  City.   Philadelphia,  1901. 
WILSON,  WOODROW,  History  of  the  United  States.  5  vols.  New  York,  1902. 
WIRT,  WILLIAM.   See  John  P.  Kennedy. 
WISE,  BARTON,  Life  of  Henry  A.  Wise.   New  York,  1899. 
WISE,  HENRY  A.,  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union.    Philadelphia,  1872.  See 

Barton  Wise. 
WRIGHT,  SILAS.  See  Jabez  D.  Hammond. 

Congressional  Debates  and  Congressional  Globe,  1830-37. 

The  National  Intelligencer,  1829-37. 

The  Washington  Globe,  1831-37. 

Documentary  History  of  the  U.S.  Capitol  Buildings  and  Grounds.   House 

Doc.  646,  58th  Congress,  1st  Session. 
Biographical  Congressional  Directory.   Senate  Doc.   654,  61st  Congress, 

2d  Session. 
John  Forsyth  MSS.,  in  possession  of  Waddy  Wood,  Washington,  D.C. 


INDEX 


Abolitionists,  Taney  and  case,  138; 
Thompson's  crusade,  denunciations, 
434;  exclusion  of  mail  matter,  435, 445; 
as  issue  (1836)  and  Van  Buren,  435, 
444, 446-48;  Calhoun  and  sectionalism 
over  petitions,  443-45. 

Adams,  J.  QM  and  dining  with  colleagues, 
13;  and  Mrs.  Livingston,  22;  effect  of 
"bargain"  story,  31;  and  vilification 
(1828),  32,  34;  and  defeat,  34-36;  and 
Jackson's  inauguration,  45,  48;  and 
Van  Buren,  53,  55;  on  Ingham,  57;  and 
crystallization  of  parties,  64;  disloy 
alty  of  officials  under,  67;  and  rejection 
of  Hill,  83;  Calhoun's  opposition  to 
Administration,  90,  92;  and  Webster- 
Hayne  debate,  98;  and  Crawford, 
107-09;  and  Jackson-Calhoun  break, 
111-13;  on  Mrs.  Eaton  affair,  121, 
132;  organ  of  Administration,  159;  on 
Clay,  174,  191;  as  Opposition  leader, 
176;  and  rejection  of  Van  Buren,  181; 
and  Clay  and  tariff,  185,  186;  tariff 
report  and  bill  (1832),  189,  193;  and 
overtures  by  Jackson,  189;  political 
character,  190,  191;  and  Bank  re- 
charter  as  issue,  211;  Bank  investi- 
,  gation  report,  216;  on  Nullification, 
261,  265;  and  compromise  tariff,  281; 
and  ending  of  Twenty-second  Con 
gress,  286;  on  Jackson  at  Harvard, 
289;  on  end  of  tour,  290;  and  removal 
of  deposits,  342;  on  Choate,  348;  and 
House  committee  to  investigate  Bank 
(1834),  349;  and  spring  election 
(1834),  354;  and  Florida  Purchase 
Treaty,  389;  and  French  Spoliation 
Claims,  399,  400;  tributes  to  Jackson, 
400,  417;  and  Webster,  414;  castiga- 
tion  of  Senate,  414-19;  Whig  resent 
ment,  419;  on  Van  Buren  and  other 
candidates  (1836),  438,  450.  See  also 
Elections  (1828,  1832). 

Adams,  Mrs.  J.  Q.,  "slandered,"  32,  83. 

Alabama,  and  expunging  of  censure,  369. 

Albany  Argus,  in  campaign  of  1832, 
243. 

Albany  Journal.  See  Weed,  Thurlow. 

Allen,  William,  and  expunging  of  cen 
sure,  465;  final  conference  with 
Jackson,  480. 


American  system.  See  Internal  im 
provements;  Tariff. 

Amusements,  in  Washington,  16-29. 

Anderson,  ,  opera  in  Washington, 

28  n. 

Anti-Masons,  Clay's  attitude,  234,  238; 
presidential  nomination  (1832),  Wirt 
and  Clay,  235-37;  Jacksonians  de 
nounce,  237;  in  campaign,  249;  and 
Granger  (1836),  433. 

Appeal,  as  White's  organ,  451. 

Archer,  W.  S.,  and  Ingham,  43;  and 
Nullification,  261,  265;  and  French 
Spoliation  Claims,  400. 

Arlington,  as  residence,  7. 

Arnold,  R.,  peculation,  dismissal,  75  n. 

Assassination  conspiracy,  charge,  376— 
78;  Poindexter  affair,  378,  379,  382. 

Attorney-General.  See  Berrien,  J.  M.; 
Butler,  B.  F. ;  Taney,  R.  B. 

Austria,  treaty,  229. 

Baldwin,  Henry,  and  Treasury  portfolio^ 
42;  on  Tyler,  78  n. 

Baltimore,  National  Republican  Con 
vention,  175;  Jacksonian,  289;  Bank 
harangues,  330;  Democratic  Convene 
tion,  429. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  opening 
to  Washington,  1. 

Bank  of  the  United  States.  See  National 
Bank. 

Bankhead,  Charles,  and  French  Spoli 
ation  Claims,  420,  421. 

Barbour,  James,  on  Clay's  tariff  speech, 
188;  on  presidential  contest  (1836), 
432;  and  slavery  issue,  435;  and 
instructions  to  expunge  censure,  441. 

"Bargain"  story,  political  effect,  31; 
Tyler  and,  79;  revival  (1832),  249; 
Forsyth  and,  389. 

Barry,  W.  T.,  selection  as  Postmaster- 
General,  49;  career  and  character,  61; 
and  recall  of  Harrison,  74 ;  at  Jefferson's 
Birthday  dinner,  101;  and  Berrien, 
129;  and  Blair,  161;  and  Post-Office 
corruption,  183,  371-76;  and  Bank, 
210,  217;  and  Houston,  241;  and  re 
moval  of  deposits,  293,  303;  Spanish 
mission,  death,  374. 

Barton,  T.  P.,  chargS  at  Paris,  marriage^ 


490 


INDEX 


406;  and  French  Spoliation  Claims, 
408,  409. 

Bell,  John,  and  White's  candidacy, 
Blair's  attack,  428,  429;  defeated  for 
Speaker,  439;  and  Van  Buren,  439. 

Bennett,  J.  G.,  press  letters  from  Wash 
ington,  16;  attack  on  Bank,  204;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  297,  298. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  and  Livingston  Code, 
135. 

Benton,  T.  H.,  in  campaign  of  1828,  58; 
and  dismissals  under  Jackson,  72;  and 
Webster-Hayne  debate,  92,  98,  103; 
at  Jefferson's  Birthday  dinner,  101, 
102;  on  establishment  of  the  Globe, 
160;  as  Jacksonian  leader,  176;  and 
rejection  of  Van  Buren,  181;  and  tariff, 
195;  land  sale  graduation  plan,  196; 
report  on  public  lands,  198;  hostility 
to  Bank,  204;  and  postponement  of 
Bank  issue,  208;  and  Bank  investi 
gation,  215;  and  Bank  veto,  Clay 
episode,  219,  224,  225;  Jackson  duel 
as  campaign  material,  246;  on  Webster 
and  Jackson,  276;  on  compromise 
tariff,  278,  283  n.;  and  removal  of 
deposits,  307;  leader  against  Bank, 
319;  political  character,  319;  and 
Senate  measures  on  deposits,  322; 
speech  on  censure,  331;  and  Webster's 
compromise  recharter  measure,  335; 
on  resolution  to  restore  deposits,  350; 
and  Taney's  report  on  finances,  351; 
and  expunging  censure,  368,  369,  371, 
461,  462;  patronage  inquiry,  383;  on 
extinguishment  of  debt,  385;  on  For 
tifications  Bill,  404,  410,  412;  and 
French  Spoliation  Claims,  408,  409;  on 
politics  in  Abolitionist  affairs,  447; 
conciliation  dinner,  465;  and  ex 
punging  excitement,  altercation  with 
Clay,  470,  471;  at  dinner  celebrating 
expunging,  471;  on  Jackson  at  Van 
Buren's  inauguration,  479;  last  con 
ference  with  Jackson,  480. 

Bernard,  Simon,  on  Calhoun,  89  n. 

Berrien,  J.  M.,  selection  as  Attorney- 
General,  44;  career  and  character,  60; 
and  Mrs.  Eaton,  Calhoun  adherent, 
resignation,  121,  123,  125,  127,  129, 
130;  and  Nullification,  125,  127,  388; 
becomes  Whig,  132. 

Bibb,  G.  M.,  on  Barry,  372;  patronage 
inquiry,  383. 

Biddie,  Nicholas,  and  Lewis,  155;  Mason 
episode,  203;  warning  against  politics, 

!    203;  and  attitude  of  Administration 


(1831),  204-07;  and  press  propaganda^ 
207,  228;  and  problem  of  application 
for  recharter,  209;  forced  to  recharter 
application,  212,  213,  217;  character, 
212;  and  recharter  before  Congress, 
216;  on  veto  message,  221;  in  cam 
paign  of  1832,  238,  239;  hope  in 
Clay-Nullifiers  union,  291;  and  Wall 
Street,  300  n.;  control  over  Bank,  305; 
policy  of  economic  coercion,  310,  313- 
15;  and  rejection  of  Government  Bank 
directors,  324;  and  Clay's  selfish  atti 
tude,  332,  360,  366;  and  Webster's 
recharter  measure,  334;  and  election 
riots,  363 ;  final  opinion  of  a  supporter, 
368.  See  also  National  Bank. 

Binney,  Horace,  on  drinking,  18;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  314;  and  Web 
ster's  compromise  recharter  measure, 
334;  as  champion  of  Bank,  as  orator, 
343;  in  debate  on  deposits,  344,  346, 
347;  and  Jackson,  347;  report  on 
deposits,  348. 

Black,  John,  and  Abolitionist  petitions; 
444  n. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  on  rapid  communication,  1; 
on  Washington  society,  27;  establish 
ment  of  the  Globe  as  Jackson's  organ, 

160,  161,  164;  advent  in  Washington, 
appearance,    relations   with    Jackson, 

161,  162,   478,   480;    political   career 
and  character,  162-64;  Green  contest, 
164;  and  daily  paper,  165;  as  editor  of 
Globe,  165-67;  value  of  services,  169; 
political  use  of  rejection  of  Van  Buren, 
182;  and  tariff  issue,  188;  and  Clay's 
land  policy,  200;  and  Bank,  218;  and 
Bank  veto,  219,   221;   on   premature 
recharter  of  Bank,  208  n. ;  on  Webb  as 
turncoat,  228;  on  Nullifiers  and  Clay, 
232,  233;  on  Clay  and  Anti-Masons, 
237;  and  Jackson  retirement  canard, 
240;     campaign      methods,     242-44; 
campaign  personalities,  247,  248;  on 
Jackson    and    Nullification,    252;   on 
compromise   tariff   combination,   280, 
283;    and    Bank    and    Clay-Calhoun 
union,  291;  and  removal  of  deposits, 
296,  298;  and  Barry,  303;  and  Cabinet 
paper  on  deposits,  305;  and  excitement 
over  deposits,  330;  on  Hopkinson  and 
Bank,  347;  on  Whig  Bank  policy,  367; 
and  assassination  conspiracy,  377,  378, 
382;  and  French  crisis,  395,  396,  411; 
and  White,  424,  425;  and  vice-presi 
dential    candidates    (1835),   431;   de 
nunciation  of  White's  candidacy  and 


INDEX 


491 


Bell,  428,  429;  and  Whitney  affair, 
461 ;  on  Jackson's  last  conference,  480. 
See  also  Kitchen  Cabinet;  Washington 
Globe. 

Boarding  houses,  in  Washington,  12. 

Bodisco,  Baron,  as  social  leader,  27. 

Booth,  J.  B.,  appearances  in  Washington 
Theater,  16. 

Bouldin,  J.  W.,  and  French  Spoliation 
Claims,  400. 

Branch,  John,  selection  as  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  44;  career  and  character, 
59;  appearance,  manner,  59;  at  Jef 
ferson's  Birthday  dinner,  101;  Mrs. 
Eaton  controversy,  resignation,  Cal- 
houn  adherent,  119,  120,  123,  125, 
126,  130;  becomes  Whig,  132. 

Branch,  Mrs.  John,  and  Mrs.  Eaton, 
120,  123. 

Broglie,  Due  de,  and  Spoliation  Claims, 
390,  406,  408. 

Brooke,  Francis,  and  Clay's  health,  249; 
and  instructions  to  expunge  censure, 
441. 

Brown,  Jesse,  as  hotel  keeper,  3. 

Bryant,  W.  C.,  on  Biddle,  368. 

Buchanan,  James,  and  Cabinet  position, 
129;  and  Globe  as  official  organ,  168; 
and  French  Spoliation  Claims,  390, 
397;  and  Fortifications  Bill,  403; 
and  Abolitionist  petitions,  444;  and 
Abolitionist  mail,  445;  on  expunging 
censure,  468. 

Burges,  Tristam  "  mess,"  12;  and  French 
Spoliation  Claims,  401. 

Butler,  B.  F.,  and  Cabinet  offer,  1; 
manner,  10;  appointment  as  Attorney- 
General,  310;  and  Jackson's  Protest, 
339;  confirmed,  352. 

Bynum,  J.  A.,  and  Fortifications  Bill, 
404. 

Cabinet,  Butler  and  portfolio,  1;  ex 
clusion  of  presidential  aspirants,  40; 
Van  Buren  and  Calhoun  and  selection, 
40;  selection  of  first,  40-45,  119;  fac 
tional  character,  45,  125;  character  of 
Jackson's  first  Secretaries,  53-63; 
Tyler  and  selection,  79;  effect  of  Jack- 
son-Calhoun  break,  115;  wrecked  by 
Mrs.  Eaton,  116,  119,  123,  130-32; 
resignation,  124-27;  construction  of 
new,  127-30;  reception  of  new,  130; 
character  of  new  Secretaries,  132- 
43;  attitude  on  Bank  recharter,  217; 
second  reorganization,  287;  and  re- 
i  moval  of  deposits,  292,  293,  303,  305; 


dismissal  of  Duane,  third  reorganiza 
tion,  309,  310;  Senate's  rejection  of 
Taney,  352;  fourth  reorganization, 
358,  359;  Kendall  succeeds  Barry, 
374;VanBuren's,  473. 

Cadwalader,  Thomas,  as  Bank  agent  at 
Washington,  210-12;  bears  recharter 
application,  accident,  214. 

Calhoun,  J.  C.,  "mess,"  12;  and  Harriet 
Martineau,  14;  and  Mrs.  Livingston, 
22;  in  society,  24;  presidential  aspira 
tions  and  Van  Buren,  40,  85;  and 
selection  of  Cabinet,  40-42,  44,  45; 
and  Tyler,  77;  and  Jackson's  appoint 
ments,  85,  86;  political  effect  of  break  ^ 
with  Jackson,  88,  110,  111,  115; 
political  career  and  character,  88-91; 
and  War  of  1812,  89;  opposition  to 
Adams's  Administration,  90,  92;  ap 
pearance,  91;  and  Webster-Hayne 
debate,  92,  97;  and  Jackson's  Union 
toast,  102,  103;  and  Jackson's  Sem- 
inole  campaign,  break  with  Jackson, 
103-06,  110-15;  and  Crawford,  107, 
108;  Jackson  pamphlet,  113;  followers 
eliminated  from  Cabinet,  125,  130; 
Duff  Green's  organ,  159;  and  party 
leadership,  173;  and  Clay,  173;  as  anti- 
Jackson  leader,  176,  285;  and  re 
jection  of  Van  Buren,  178,  181;  invi 
tation  to  join  Opposition,  184;  and 
Bank,  210;  and  support  of  Clay 
(1832),  231-33;  Blair  on  attitude 
(1832),  233;  and  South  Carolina's  vote, 
251;  Nullification  and  Jackson's 
hatred,  252,  269,  277,  279,  480;  Expo 
sition,  253;  letter  urging  Nullification, 
254;  and  Nullification  Proclamation, 
265;  journey  to  Washington,  266; 
taking  seat  in  Senate,  267;  and  mes 
sage  on  Nullification,  269;  constitu 
tional  resolutions,  269;  speech  on 
Force  Bill,  274;  and  compromise  tariff, 
277-82;  and  rescission  of  Nullification, 
284;  and  distress  petitions,  327;  speech 
on  censure,  331;  confidence  in  Bank 
success,  332;  and  Webster's  recharter 
measure,  334,  335;  on  Jackson's  Pro 
test,  341;  Ritchie  on  presidential 
ambition,  364;  rage  against  Jackson, 
368;  on  Post-Office  corruption,  369;  on 
expunging  censure,  370,  371,  464;  and 
assassination  conspiracy,  377;  patron 
age  inquiry  and  report,  382-84;  and 
Abolitionist  petitions  and  sectionalism, 
443-45;  bill  on  Abolitionist  mail, 
political  motive,  445-48;  attack  flO 


492 


INDEX 


Jackson  and  Van  Buren  (1836),  449; 
Jackson's  triumph,  472. 

Calhoun,  Mrs.  J.  C.,  and  Mrs.  Eaton, 
120. 

Cambreleng,  C.  C.,  as  Jackson  leader, 
177;  and  French  Spoliation  Claims, 
399,  401;  and  Fortifications  Bill,  404, 
411,  414. 

Campbell,  J.  N.,  and  Mrs.  Eaton,  119, 
120. 

Capitol,  in  the  thirties,  8-11. 

Cartoons,    in    campaign    of    1832,    241. 

Carusi,  Louis,  assembly,  28. 

Cass,  Lewis,  on  McLean,  and  justiceship, 
49;  selection  as  Secretary  of  War,  129; 
career  and  character,  140-43;  and 
Bank,  212,  217;  and  Nullification, 
letter  to  Virginia,  255,  262;  in  New 
England  tour,  289;  and  removal  of 
deposits,  question  of  resignation,  29.3, 
303,  305,  309;  French  mission,  "473. 

Censure  of  Jackson,  Senate  resolutions 
introduced,  325;  debate,  330-32; 
passage,  337;  Jackson's  Protest,  338, 
339;  debate  on  Protest,  refusal  to 
receive  it,  339-42;  State  Legislatures 
and  instructions  to  expunge,  attitude 
of  Senators,  368,  441-43;  first  ex 
punging  movement  (1836),  369-71; 
expunging  as  national  issue,  and 
changes  in  Senate,  461,  462;  Benton's 
and  Buchanan's  speeches,  462,  463; 
Whig  speeches,  463-69;  Benton's 
Democratic  conciliation  dinner,  465; 
Benton's  refreshments  at  Capitol,  465, 
468;  vote  to  expunge,  469;  tension, 
ceremony,  protest  of  gallery,  470, 
471;  Jackson's  dinner,  471. 

Chabaulon,  Henri  de,  and  Spoliation 
Claims,  405. 

Chapman,  J.  G.,  exhibition  of  paintings, 
28. 

Chevalier,  Michel,  on  campaign  parade, 
245. 

Cheves,  Langdon,  and  Treasury  port 
folio,  43. 

Choate,  Rufus,  as  Opposition  leader, 
177;  Bank  speech,  348. 

Cholera,  and  campaign  of  1832,  243,  247, 
249. 

Churches,  of  Washington,  8. 

Civil  service,  office-seekers  and  Jackson, 
38,  39,  66,  69,  70;  office-holders  and 
Jackson,  39;  McLean  and  proscrip 
tions,  49;  Van  Buren's  attitude,  54; 
Jackson  and  exigent  origin  of  spoils 
system,  64,  67-69,  480;  office-holding 


class,  65;  demands  for  proscription; 
65;  dismissals,  hardships,  extent,  70- 
74;  dismissal  of  criminal  officials,  75; 
Senate's    rejection   of   nomination   of 
editors,     76,     80-87;     review     under 
Jackson,     228;     Senate's     patronage 
inquiry,   382-84;  proposed  repeal    of 
four-year-tenure  law,  384. 
Clay,   Henry,   and  Harriet  Martineau, 
14;   and   Mrs.  Livingston,   22;  in  so 
ciety,  24;  effect  of  "bargain "  story,  31 ; 
and  campaign  of  1828,  vilified,  32;  and 
defeat  (1828),  35,  36;  and  Jackson's 
inauguration,  48;  personal  opposition 
to  Jackson,  50-53;  and  crystallization 
of  parties,  65;  and  Tyler,  77,  79;  and 
Kendall,    145,    146,    148;    return    to 
Senate  as  leader  of  Opposition,  171, 
172;  character,  as  politician,  172-75; 
Calhoun  on,  173;  Adams  on,  174,  191; 
nomination  for  Presidency,  175;  search 
for  an  issue,  175,  177;  platform,  176; 
and    rejection    of  Van    Buren,    178- 
80;     West     Indian     trade     negotia 
tions,  178;  and  confirmation  of  Liv 
ingston,  182;  tariff  plan  (1832),  185- 
87;  tariff  speeches,  187,  188;  and  con 
ference  tariff  bill,  195;  vulnerable  pub 
lic  lands  policy,   195-97;  and   public 
lands  bill,  speech,  197-200;  makes  re- 
charter  of  Bank  his  issue,  206-12, 217; 
on  Bank  veto,  221,  222,  224;  Benton 
episode  over  Bank,  225;  conduct  of 
campaign,   230;  and   Nullifiers,   231; 
and  Anti-Masons,  234-38;  campaign 
abuse,    247;    during    campaign,    249; 
defeat,  251;  Nullification  and  playing 
politics,  260,  261,  264,  280,  285;  and 
Force  Bill  debate,  270;  and  compro 
mise  tariff,  278-81,  283;  pocket  veto 
of  land  bill,  286;  and  distress  petitions, 
315,    327;    resolution   on   depository 
banks,  322;  demand  for  Cabinet  paper 
on   Bank,    323;    and   legal    basis  of 
deposits  controversy,  325;  resolutions 
censuring    Jackson,    325;    speech    on 
censure,  330;  confidence  in  Bank  vic 
tory,    332;    selfish    attitude    toward 
Bank,  332,  335,  366;  and  Webster's 
compromise   recharter   measure,   335; 
Van  Buren  and  histrionics  over  distress, 
335-37;  resolution  to  restore  deposits, 
350;  and  Taney's  report  on  finances, 
350;  and  expunging  censure,  speech, 
369,  371,  465-68;  and  Barry,  372;  and 
Poindexter    investigation,    382;    and 
Foray  th,  389;  and  French  crisis,  396, 


INDEX 


493 


397,  417;  and  White's  candidacy,  424 
and  candidacy  (1836),  431;  on  possible 
Whig  candidates,  432,  433;  and  re 
jection  of  Taney,  441;  during  cam 
paign,  endorses  Harrison,  452;  and 
election  of  Van  Buren,  456;  Ben  ton 
altercation  after  expunging,  471 
Jackson's  triumph,  472;  Jackson's 
hatred,  480.  See  also  Election  (1832). 

Clayton,  A.  S.,  and  Bank  investigation, 
215. 

Clayton,  J.  M.,  and  crystallization  of 
parties,  65;  as  Opposition  leader,  176; 
and  rejection  of  Van  Buren,  180; 
appearance,  character,  183;  and 
Post-Office  investigation,  183;  invi 
tation  to  Nullifiers,  184;  and  Force 
Bill,  270,271;  and  compromise  tariff, 
278,  280,  282,  283. 

Coach  hire,  in  Washington,  4.          %. 

Cockfighting  at  Washington,  18.      •; 

Colombia,  relations  with,  229. 

Congress,  Twenty-first:  beginning  of 
campaign  speeches,  55;  Senate  and 
Jackson's  nominations,  76,  80-87; 
Webster-Hayne  debate,  92-99. 

Twenty-second;  Clay  as  leader  of 
Opposition,  172;  other  leaders,  176, 
177;  rejection  of  Van  Buren,  177- 
82;  investigation  of  Post-Office,  183; 
tariff  of  1832,  185-89,  193-95;  public 
lands,  197-99,  286;  Bank  recharter 
and  investigation,  214-26;  campaign 
denunciation,  229;  Administration's 
tariff  bill  (1833),  267;  annual  message, 
257;  message  on  Nullification,  268, 
269;  Force  Bill,  269-76,  281;  com- 

^  promise  tariff,  277-82;  dramatic  end, 
286. 

Twenty-third:  petitions  on  Bank 
question,  315,  327-29;  leaders  in  Bank 
controversy,  319-21;  Senate  measures 
on  removal  of  deposits,  322-24;  legal 
basis  of  deposits  contest,  325;  public 
interest  in  Bank  debate,  326;  censure 
of  Jackson,  325,  330-33,  337,  Web 
ster's  compromise  recharter  measure, 
333-35;  Van  Buren  and  Clay's  his 
trionics,  335-37;  Jackson's  Protest, 
not  received,  338-42;  House  measures 
and  debate  on  deposits,  342-49; 
House  committee  to  investigate  Bank, 
349,  350;  Senate  resolution  to  restore 
deposits,  350;  Taney's  special  report 
on  finances,  350-52;  rejection  of 
nominations,  352;  and  expunging 
censure,  368-71;  Post-Office  investi 


gation  "and'  reorganization,  369,  371- 
74;  Poindexter  investigation,  382; 
patronage  inquiry,  382-84;  French 
crisis,  392,  393,  396,  397,  399-402; 
Fortifications  Bill,  402-05;  Speaker- 
ship  contest,  429. 

Twenty-fourth:  French  crisis,  408-11; 
debate  on  failure  of  Fortifications  Bill, 
410-20;  Speakership,  439;  confirma 
tion  of  Taney,  440;  expunging  censure, 
441,  442,  461-71;  Abolitionist  affairs 
and  politics,  443-48;  Whitney  affair, 
457-61. 

"  Goodies,"  137  n. 

Cooper,  Thomas,  and  National  Bank; 
291. 

Corwin,  Thomas,  as  Opposition  leader^ 
177. 

Cox,  M.  M.,  peculation,  dismissal,  75  n. 

Crawford,  W.  H.,  Washington  residence, 
6;  and  Jackson-Calhoun  break,  104- 
06;  political  career  and  character, 
candidacy  (1824),  106-10;  and  Adams, 
Jackson,  Calhoun,  107,  108;  charges 
against,  investigation,  107,  108. 

Crittenden,  J.  J.,  and  expunging  of  cen 
sure,  463. 

Crockett,  Davy,  biography  of  Van 
Buren,  436-38. 

Custis,  G.  W.,  residence,  7. 

Cuthbert,  Alfred,  Fortifications  Bill,' 
413;  and  Abolitionist  petitions,  444 
n.;  on  politics  in  Abolitionist  affairs, 
447. 

Dallas,  G.  M.,  and  Livingston,  128  n., 
182;  Bank  recharter  bill,  214. 

Dana,  Judah,  and  expunging  of  censure, 
463. 

Dancing,  in  Washington,  26. 

Daniel,  P.  V.,and  Attorney-Generalship, 
310. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  on  Calhoun's  eyes,  92  n. 

Davis,  M.  L.,  press  letters  from  Wash 
ington,  16. 

Dawson,  Moses,  rejection  by  Senate,  82. 

Denmark,  claims  against,  229. 

Depository  banks,  proposed  regulation, 
383,  384. 

Deposits.  See  Removal  of  deposits. 

Dickerson,  Mahlon,  as  Jacksonian 
leader,  176;  vice-presidential  candi 
dacy,  182;  and  tariff  bill,  194,  195; 
and  Bank,  211  n.,  217;  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  359. 

District  of  Columbia,  Van  Buren  and 
slavery  in,  451. 


494 


INDEX 


Donelson^A.  J.J  and  Jackson's  Union 
toast,  101 ;  in  New  England  tour,  289 ; 
and  message  on  French  crisis,  392. 

Donelson,  Mrs.  Emily,  and  Mrs.  Eaton, 
123;  as  mistress  of  White  House,  475. 

Drayton,  William,  and  Ingham,  43;  and 
Cabinet  position,  129;  and  Nullifica 
tion,  269. 

Drinking,  in  Washington,  18. 

Duane,  W.  J.,  character,  selection  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  287,  288; 
and  removal  of  deposits,  294-97, 
303;  recalcitrance  and  dismissal, 
306-09. 

Dupin,  A.  M.  J.  J.J  and  Spoliation 
Claims,  391. 

Earle,  Ralph,  in  Jackson's  New  England 
tour,  289;  at  White  House,  478,  re 
turn  to  Hermitage,  480. 

Eaton,  J.  H.,  selection  as  Secretary  of 
War,  43,  119;  political  career  and 
character,  57;  in  campaign  of  1828, 
58;  at  Jefferson's  Birthday  dinner, 
101 ;  and  Peggy  O'Neal,  marriage,  118; 
resignation,  124;  and  return  to 
Senate,  128;  pursuit  of  Ingham,  131, 
132;  later  career,  132. 

Eaton,  Mrs.  J.  H.,  [Peggy  O'Neal], 
wrecks  Cabinet,  116,  123-25,  130; 
character,  appearance,  117;  relations 
with  Eaton,  marriage,  118;  Jackson's 
investigation  and  championship,  119, 
120;  snubbing  and  championing, 
political  effect,  119-22;  later  career, 
132;  as  graft  go-between,  376. 

Edwards,  Ninian,  and  Crawford,  107, 
108. 

Election  of  1824,  rival  Cabinet  candi 
dates,  107-10. 

Election  of  1828,  significance,  31,  34,  81; 

i  Washington  and,  31,  35;  vilification, 
32-34;  Adams's  Administration  and 
defeat,  35,  36;  Eaton  as  Jackson's 
manager,  58;  newspapers  in,  81;  Cal- 
houn's  attitude,  91;  Lewis's  services, 
153. 

Election  of  1832,  quick  returns,  2;  elim- 

N  ination  of  Calhoun,  110,  111,  115; 
Jackson's  candidacy,  164,  172;  Clay's 
nomination,  his  search  for  an  issue, 
175,  177,  226;  his  platform,  176;  and 
Senate's  rejection  of  Van  Buren,  181, 
182;  union  of  elements  of  Opposition, 
184;  failure  of  tariff  as  issue,  188,  195; 
Clay's  land  policy  as  issue,  196,  199, 
200;  Bank  as  issue,  207,  209,  212-14, 


217,  219,  223,  225,  226,  244,  248;  as 
democratic  campaign,  227;  news 
papers  in,  228;  Kendall's  review  of 
Jackson's  Administration,  228-30; 
Nullifiers'  support  of  Clay,  230-33; 
Anti-Masons  and  Clay,  234-37;  Jack- 
sonians  denounce  Anti-Masons,  237, 
238;  Bank  propaganda,  238-40; 
canards  on  Jackson,  240,  241;  Whig 
cartoons,'  241;  Kitchen  Cabinet  and 
organization  and  publicity,  242-45; 
meetings  and  parades,  245,  246 ;  person 
alities,  246;  candidates  during  cam 
paign,  249,  250;  Democratic  confi 
dence,  250,  251;  result,  251;  and  Nul 
lification,  252. 

Election  of  1834,  Bank  and  spring 
elections,  354-57;  Whig  Party,  357; 
Whig  purpose  and  methods,  358; 
Democratic  purpose,  361;  verdict  on 
Bank  of  fall  elections,  361-65;  riots  in 
Philadelphia,  363. 

Election  of  1836,  Van  Buren  as  heir 
apparent,  423;  White  as  anti-Van 
Buren  prospect,  424;  Whigs  and 
White's  candidacy,  424,  425;  Demo 
cratic  efforts  to  suppress  White,  426; 
Blair's  denunciations  of  White  and 
Bell,  428, 429;  Democratic  Convention, 
Tennessee  and,  429;  Democratic  vice- 
presidential  nomination,  430,  431; 
Clay  and  candidacy,  431;  Whig  can 
didates,  432,  433;  Whig  hope  in  elec 
tion  by  House,  432;  Whig  vice-presi 
dential  candidates,  433;  slavery  issue 
as  anti-Van  Buren  weapon,  435,  436, 
444,  446-48,  452;  Crockett's  biography 
of  Van  Buren,  436-38;  Adams  on 
candidates,  438,  450;  Van  Buren's 
campaign  attitude,  438;  Jackson's 
activity,  White's  attack  on  it,  448, 
452,  453;  lack  of  issues,  449,  451;  basis 
of  White's  candidacy,  449;  campaign 
methods,  451;  queries  to  candidates, 
451,  452;  Clay  and  campaign,  452; 
results,  comparison  with  1832,  454-56. 

Everett,  Edward,  as  Opposition  leader, 
177;  tariff  conference,  185,  186;  and 
Jackson  at  Harvard,  289;  report  on 
Bank,  349;  and  French  crisis,  399, 
401. 

Ewing,  Thomas,  as  anti-Jackson  leader, 
176;  and  rejection  of  Van  Buren,  180; 
and  instructions  to  expunge  censure, 
442. 

Fairfield,  John,  on  Whitney  affair,  459. 


INDEX 


495 


Farewell  Address,  purpose,  character,  472. 

Fashions,  at  Washington,  20. 

Federalists,  Webster  as,  94,  95;  Taney 
as,  137. 

Ferdinand  of  Spain,  and  Florida  Treaty, 
389. 

Fiske,  John,  on  Jackson's  foreign  policy, 
421. 

Florida,  Purchase  Treaty,  Forsyth's 
credit,  389.  See  also  Seminole  cam 
paign. 

Floyd,  John,  overtures  to  Clay,  231; 
South  Carolina's  electoral  vote,  251; 
and  Nullification,  261. 

Foote,  H.  S.,  on  Kendall,  374. 

Force,  Peter,  in  campaign  of  1828,  32. 

Force  Bill,  presentation,  269;  debate  in 
Senate,  270-72;  Calhoun's  speech, 
274;  Webster's  speech,  275;  passage, 
282. 

Foreign  relations,  Jackson's  selection  of 
ministers,  50;  Globe  as  official  organ, 
168,  169;  Van  Buren  as  Minister  to 
England,  177;  accomplishments  under 
Jackson,  229;  character  of  Jackson's 
advisers,  389;  Oregon  boundary,  390, 
480;  results  of  Jackson's  policy,  421. 
See  also  French  Spoliation  Claims. 

Forsyth,  John,  and  Webster-Hayne 
debate,  93;  and  Jackson-Calhoun 
break,  104-06;  as  Jacksonian  leader, 
176;  and  rejection  of  Van  Buren, 
180;  and  Bank,  211  n.\  and  Nullifi 
cation,  269,  271;  and  compromise 
tariff,  282;  and  Attorney-Generalship, 
310;  on  distress  petitions,  315,  327, 
329;  and  call  for  Cabinet  paper,  323; 
in  censure  debate,  332;  and  Webster's 
recharter  measure,  335;  and  Jackson's 
Protest,  341,  342;  on  naming  Whig 
Party,  357;  selection  as  Secretary  of 
State,  359;  character,  386-89;  as 
diplomatist,  389,  390;  and  French 
crisis,  392,  398,  405,  420;  and  Forti 
fications  Bill,  404,  411;  and  slavery 
issue,  435;  and  Georgia's  vote  (1836), 
455. 

Forsyth,  Mrs.  John,  as  social  leader,  23; 
and  F.  S.  Key,  25. 

Fortifications  Bill,  failure  (1835),  respon 
sibility,  402-05,  413;  Adams's  casti- 
gation  of  Senate,  414-20. 

Foster,  J.  W.,  on  Jackson's  foreign 
policy,  422. 

Four-year-tenure  law,  proposed  repeal, 
384. 

Fox,  H.  S.,  as  social  leader,  27. 


France.    See  French  Spoliation  Claims. 

Frankfort  Argus,  under  Kendall  and 
Blair,  146-48,  163;  Blair's  attack 
on  Nullification,  160. 

Frelinghuysen,  Theodore,  in  censure 
debate,  332;  on  Jackson's  Protest,  340; 
defeat,  362. 

French  Spoliation  Claims,  Jackson's 
treaty,  229,  386;  failure  to  appropriate 
payments,  386,  391;  dilemma  of 
French  Government,  390,  391;  need 
of  strong  public  stand,  391,  397; 
annual  message  (1834)  on,  392,  393; 
Whig  attitude,  393,  395,  396,  420,  422; 
message  and  Whig  opposition  in  France, 
394,  405,  411;  French  protest  on  mes 
sage,  395 ;  Senate  and  message,  adverse 
report,  396,  397;  Livingston's  reply  to 
French  protest,  398;  imminence  of 
war,  398,  399,  409,  410;  House  dis 
cussion,  Adams's  attitude,  399-402; 
failure  of  Fortifications  Bill,  respon 
sibility,  402-05,  410-19;  explanation 
demanded  of  France,  405;  French 
demand  for  apology,  405,  408;  Liv 
ingston  leaves,  406;  his  ovation  at 
home,  407;  personal  phase  of  crisis, 
406,  407,  409;  Jackson  and  demand 
for  apology,  408;  message  on  crisis, 
409-11;  British  mediation,  French 
backdown,  420,  421. 

Fuller's  Hotel,  3. 

Gadsby,  John,  as  hotel  keeper,  3. 

Gales,  Joseph,  in  campaign  of  1828,  32; 
printer  to  the  House,  277.  See  also 
National  Intelligencer. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  West  Indian  trade 
negotiations,  178;  warning  to  Bank, 
318,  360. 

Gambling,  in  Washington,  18. 

Gardner,  J.  B.,  rejection  by  Senate,  82. 

Garrison,  W.  L.,  mobbed,  434. 

Georgetown,  as  residence  section,  5,  7. 

Georgia,  and  Nullification,  388;  vote  in 
1836,  455. 

Globe.   See  Washington  Globe. 

Gossip,  in  Washington  society,  25. 

Granger,  Francis,  vice-presidential  can 
didacy,  433. 

Great  Britain,  character  of  Jackson's 
Minister  to,  50,  177;  West  Indian 
trade  negotiations,  178;  Oregon  con 
troversy,  390,  480. 

Green,  Duff,  and  spoils  system,  65,  68; 
and  Calhoun's  presidential  aspirations, 
85, 91;  and  Webster-Hayne  debate,  97; 


496 


INDEX 


and  Jackson-Calhoun  break,  113,  114 
159;  and  Mrs.  Eaton,  130;  paper  as 
Jackson's  organ,  159;  and  Blair,  164 
and  loan  from  Bank,  207;  support  oi 
Clay,  231,  232;  printer  to  Senate,  277 
and  Force  Bill,  284;  and  Bell,  429;  in 
campaign  of  1836,  451.  See  also 
United  States  Telegraph. 

Green,  Nathaniel,  pre-inaugural  con 
ferences,  39. 

Grundy,  Felix,  on  Barry,  372;  and  Web- 
ster-Hayne  debate,  93;  and  White, 
128,  426;  as  Jacksonian  leader,  176; 
and  tariff,  195;  and  Force  Bill,  271, 
272;  in  debate  on  censure,  332;  and 
Webster's  recharter  measure,  335;  and 
Abolitionist  mail,  445. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  Jr.,  and  Bank, 
204,  318,  360. 

Hamilton,  James,  and  Ingham,  43;  and 
Nullification,  253;  Calhoun's  Nulli 
fication  letter,  254. 

Hamilton,  James  A.,  as  Van  Buren's 
Washington  agent,  41;  and  Jackson- 
Calhoun  break,  104,  105,  114;  and 
McLane,  125;  political  importance, 
201;  and  Jackson's  first  message,  201, 
202;  and  Bank  investigation,  215; 
and  Bank  veto,  217,  218;  and  Nul 
lification,  256,  257,  263;  and  removal 
of  deposits,  290,  291,  306;  and  spring 
elections  (1834),  354;  and  French 
crisis,  398. 

Hamilton,  Mrs.  Philip,  and  Jackson, 
478. 

Hamilton,  Thomas,  on  Washington,  2, 
4,  5;  on  Supreme  Court,  10  n.;  on 
slavery,  11;  lionized,  14;  on  Capital's 
social  charm,  19. 

Hardin,  Benjamin,  and  Spoliation 
Claims,  402;  Randolph  on,  402. 

Harper,  William,  and  Nullification,  253, 
388. 

Harris,  Thomas,  removes  bullet  from 
Jackson,  246. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  as  lawyer,  54. 

Harrison,  W.  H.,  cause  of  final  illness, 
14  n, ;  recall, 74;  presidential  candidacy, 
Clay's  attitude,  432,  433,  452;  and 
slavery  issue,  436;  Adams  on,  438; 
electoral  vote,  454. 

Hartford  Convention,  Webster's  atti 
tude,  95. 

Hawes,  A.  G.,  Johnson  incident,  373. 

Hayne,  R.  Y.,  and  Ingham,  43;  Webster 
debate  as  political,  92,  93,  98;  Union 


issue,  93,  97,  99,  103;  political  career 
and  character,  96;  speech,  effect,  96, 
97;  Webster's  reply,  98;  and  Jackson's 
Union  toast,  102;  as  anti-Jackson 
leader,  176;  and  rejection  of  Van 
Buren,  180;  and  tariff,  187,  194;  and 
Nullification  Proclamation,  265;  and 
arming  of  Nullifiers,  268;  urges 
caution,  277;  and  rescission  of  Nul 
lification,  284. 

Health,  conditions  at  Washington,  29. 

Hendricks,  William,  and  Bank,  211  n. 

Hermitage,  Jackson's  journeys  to  and 
from,  250,  252,  358,  360,  361,  452, 
453,  480. 

Hill,  Isaac,  in  campaign  of  1828,  vili 
fication,  32,  33,  157;  pre-inaugural 
conferences,  38,  39;  and  spoils  system, 
66,  71,  73;  rejection  by  Senate,  82,  83; 
protests  on  rejection,  86,  87;  becomes 
Senator,  87,  129;  on  Webster,  95; 
political  career  and  character,  as 
editor,  155-58;  appearance,  158;  role 
in  Kitchen  Cabinet,  169;  and  tariff, 
195;  Mason  episode,  202;  campaign 
methods,  242,  245,  248;  campaign 
bets,  251;  in  New  England  tour,  289; 
and  petitions  on  Bank,  329;  and 
Webster's  recharter  measure,  335; 
and  vice-presidential  candidates 
(1835),  431;  on  Calhoun  and  section 
alism,  444.  See  also  Kitchen  Cabinet. 

Holland,  W.  M.,  biography  of  Van 
Buren,  438. 

Holmes,  John,  and  rejection  of  Van 
Buren,  180  n.;  campaign  abuse,  248. 

Hone,  Philip,  on  campaign  of  1832,  251; 
on  Nullification  Proclamation,  263; 
on  Jackson  in  New  York,  289  n.;  on 
Bank  and  depression,  311,  312,  352; 
and  distress  meeting,  316;  on  cam 
paign  (1834),  362,  365;  final  judgment 
on  Biddle,  368;  on  French  crisis,  393, 
405,  407,  409;  on  Van  Buren  during 
campaign,  438;  on  campaign,  450. 

Hopkinson,  Joseph,  and  Bank,  Blair's 
accusation,  347. 

Horse-racing,  at  Washington,  18. 

Hotels,  in  Washington,  3. 

House  of  Representatives,  chamber,  9. 
See  also  Congress. 

Houston,  Sam,  attack  on  Congressman, 
241. 

Hughes, ,  opera  in  Washington,  28  n. 

Hugo,  Victor,  on  Livingston  Code,  135. 

Huygens,  Madame,  and  Mrs.  Eaton, 
122. 


INDEX 


497 


Ice  cream,  as  social  novelty,  26. 

Inauguration,  of  Jackson,  character  of 
crowd,  36,  47;  his  arrival  and  recep 
tion,  37 ;  his  attitude  and  conferences, 
38-40;  selection  of  Cabinet  40-45; 
Adams  and,  45,  48;  ceremony,  46; 
reception  at  White  House  47;  Jack- 
bon's  second,  287;  Van  Buren's,  479. 

Indian  Queen,  as  hotel,  3. 

Industry,  prosperity,  229. 

Ingersoll,  C.  J.,  and  Bank  recharter, 
215,  218. 

Ingham,  S.  D.,  selection  as  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  42 ;  political  career  and 
character,  57;  and  office-seekers,  69; 
and  Mrs.  Eaton  controversy,  resig 
nation,  123,  126;  and  Bank  and  Cal- 
houn,  125;  flight  from  Eaton,  131, 
132;  and  Mason  episode,  203;  Cal- 
houn's  tribute,  275. 

Ingham,  Mrs.  S.  D.,  and  Mrs.  Eaton, 
120,  123. 

Internal  improvements,  Jackson's  vetoes, 
171;  Clay's  platform,  176. 

Irving,  Washington,  in  Washington,  15. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  and  Booth's  acting, 
16;  and  horse-racing,  18;  and  cock- 
fighting,  18;  election  as  revolution, 
31,  34,  81;  vilified  in  1828,  and  at 
tacks  on  wife,  32-34;  arrival  at 
Washington,  37;  pre-inaugural  atti 
tude  and  conferences,  38-40 ;  selection 
of  first  Cabinet,  40-45,  49;  and 
Adams,  later  overtures,  45,  189; 
inauguration,  reception  at  White 
House,  46-48;  first  disaffections,  48, 
60;  and  McLean  and  proscriptions, 
49;  and  Tazewell  and  English  mission, 
50;  Clay's  personal  opposition,  50-53; 
and  Eaton,  58;  and  origin  of  spoils 
system,  attitude  of  advisers,  64,  67- 
69,  480;  and  crystallization  of  par 
ties,  65,  67;  clamor  of  office-seekers, 
66,  69,  70;  dismissals  under,  70-76; 
and  recall  of  Harrison,  74 ;  Tyler's  hos 
tility,  78-80;  and  press,  81;  and  rejec 
tions  by  Senate,  86;  political  effect  of 
break  with  Calhoun,  88,  110,  111, 
115;  and  Webster-Hayne  debate,  93, 
97,  99,  100;  Jefferson's  Birthday  din 
ner,  Union  toast,  100-03;  Calhoun 
and  Seminole  campaign,  break  with 
Calhoun,  103-06,  110-15;  and  Craw 
ford,  107,  109;  and  Eaton's  marriage, 
118;  and  Mrs.  Eaton,  119-21;  resig 
nation  of  Cabinet,  123-27;  construc 


tion  of  new  Cabinet,  127-30;  and 
Eaton-Ingham  letters,  132;  first 
contact  with  Livingston,  134;  Taney's 
support  (1824),  139;  character  of 
Kitchen  Cabinet,  144;  relations  with 
Lewis,  151-54;  establishment  of  or 
gan,  158-61;  and  Duff  Green,  160; 
and  Blair,  162,  166,  478,  480;  candi 
dacy  for  reelection*.  164,  172;  and 
Globe  finances,  165  n.\  services  of 
Kitchen  Cabinet,  169;  evidences  of 
leadership,  171;  tariff  views,  171, 
185;  opponents  and  supporters  in 
Congress  (1832),  176,  177;  union  of 
elements  of  Opposition,  184;  and 
tariff  as  issue,  188,  195;  and  land 
policy,  196;  Bank  in  first  message, 
reason  for  attack,  201-04;  attitude  on 
Bank  (1831),  Biddle's  overtures, 
204-08;  and  Bank  as  issue,  209;  and 
compromise  recharter,  212,  215;  and 
Bank  investigation,  215;  Bank  veto, 
217-22,  244;  and  Supreme  Court, 
220;  Kendall's  campaign  review  of 
Administration,  228-30;  and  Anti- 
Masons,  237;  retirement  and  health 
canards,  240,  241;  and  Houston's 
attack,  241;  campaign  abuse  (1832), 
246;  and  cholera,  247;  during  cam 
paign,  confidence,  249-51;  reelection, 
251;  and  expected  Nullification, 
252;  and  Unionist  dinner,  254;  Poin- 
sett  as  agent  in  South  Carolina,  255; 
preparation  to  combat  Nullification, 
255;  desire  for  peaceful  settlement, 
256-58,  268;  annual  message  (1832), 
257,  Nullification  Proclamation,  257- 
60;  intention  to  punish  Nullifiers, 
259,  269,  273,  277-79;  and  Virginia's 
attitude,  262;  and  Van  Buren's  atti 
tude,  263,  264;  and  tariff  bill  (1833), 
267;  message  on  Nullification,  268; 
and  Webster's  attitude,  overtures, 
274-77,  288,  332;  and  compromise 
tariff,  279,  280,  281;  Nullification  and 
union  of  opponents,  285;  second  in 
auguration,  address,  287;  second 
reorganization  of  Cabirietr-287,  288; 
New  England  tour,  288-90;  origin  of 
,  plan  to  remove  deposits,  289-92 ;  and 
Duane's  attitude  on  deposits,  295;  and 
delay  in  removal,  297;  and  divided 
counsel  on  removal,  299;  and  Van 
Buren's  attitude,  299-301;  and 
Taney's  advocacy,  301;  determines 
on  removal,  302;  Cabinet  paper  on 
reasons  for  removal,  303-05;  and  atti- 


498 


INDEX 


tude  of  Cabinet,  306,  309;  dismis 
sal  of  Duane,  third  reorganization 
of  Cabinet,  307-09;  and  Bank's 
.curtailments,  313,  361;  and  distress 
petitions,  316;  character  of  papers  on 
Bank,  322;  and  Senate's  call  for 
Cabinet  paper,  323;  censure  by 
Senate,  325,  330-32,  337;  Protest, 
338,  339;  Senate's  refusal  to  receive 
Protest,  339-42;  and  Binney,  347; 
fourth  reorganization  of  Cabinet, 
358,  359;  character  of  Bank  fight, 
367;  expunging  of  censure,  368-71, 
441-43,  461-71;  and  Post-Office  re 
organization,  372;  attempt  to  assas 
sinate,  conspiracy  charge,  Poindexter, 
376-79, 382 ;  relations  with  Poindexter, 
380,  381;  and  extinguishment  of  debt, 
385;  French  Spoliation  Claims  treaty, 
386;  and  failure  to  pay  claims,  386, 
391,  392;  and  foreign  affairs  advisers, 
389;  and  Oregon,  390;  annual  message 
on  failure  to  pay  French  claims,  392, 
393;  and  French  protest  on  message, 
398;  Adams's  tributes,  400,  417;  and 
Fortifications  Bill,  404;  and  Cora 
Livingston,  406;  and  Mme.  Pageot, 
407;  and  French  demand  for  apology, 
408;  special  message  on  French  crisis, 
409-11;  and  British  mediation,  420; 
and  French  backdown,  421;  results  of 
foreign  policy,  421;  and  Van  Buren  as 
successor,  423;  White's  drift  from, 
424;  and  White's  candidacy,  426;  and 
Abolitionists,  435,  445;  and  memorial 
to  Marshall,  440;  White's  attack  on 
campaign  activity,  448,  453;  cam 
paigning  in  Tennessee,  453;  illness, 
457;  and  Whitney,  458;  dinner  to 
celebrate  expunging,  471;  triumphs, 
471;  and  future  dangers,  Farewell 
Address,  472,  473;  farewell  reception, 
473;  appearance,  473;  health,  474; 
social  attitude,  474;  life  at  White 
House,  475-77;  work  routine,  477; 
and  society  of  women,  478;  at  Van 
Buren's  inauguration,  acclaimed,  479; 
last  day  at  Washington,  479;  final 
conference,  advice,  hatred  of  Clay 
and  Calhoun,  480;  departure,  480. 
See  also  Election  (1828,  1832). 

Jackson,    Mrs.   Andrew,    campaign   at 
tacks  on,  32,  83. 

Jackson,  Sarah  Y.,  and  Jackson,  476. 

James,  G.  P.  R.,  on  Tyler,  80. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  and  Crawford,  10°' 
on  Livingston  Code,  135. 


Jefferson's  Birthday,  dinner  (1830),' 
Nullifiers*  purpose,  Jackson's  Union 
toast,  100-03. 

Johnson,  R.  M.,  on  Cabinet  crisis  over 
Mrs.  Eaton,  123;  and  Kendall,  146; 
and  overtures  to  Adams,  189;  vice- 
presidential  nomination,  431. 

Johnson,   W.   C.,   Barry  incident,   373. 

Johnston,  J.  S.,  and  Nullification,  279. 

Kane,  E.  K,  and  Bank,  211  n. 

Kemble,  Fanny,  in  Washington,  16; 
Story's  verses,  17  n. 

Kendall,  Amos,  pre-inaugural  con 
ferences,  39;  on  Barry,  62;  and  spoils 
system,  68,  73;  Senate  and  appoint 
ment,  84;  and  Van  Buren  and  Cal 
houn,  85;  and  rejection  of  Hill,  87; 
career  and  character,  as  editor,  144- 
48;  374;  and  Clay,  145,  146,  148;  in 
campaign  of  1828,  148;  as  office- 
seeker,  148;  role  in  Kitchen  Cabinet, 
149-51;  and  coming  of  Blair,  161; 
value  of  services,  169;  political  use  of 
rejection  of  Van  Buren,  182;  and 
tariff  issue,  188;  and  Clay's  land  policy, 
200;  hostility  to  Bank,  203,  204,  218; 
and  Bank  veto,  219,  221;  campaign 
review  of  Administration,  228-30; 
campaign  methods,  242,  243;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  291-93;  and 
recess  removal,  294;  and  Duane's 
attitude,  294,  295;  sounding  of  State 
banks,  296,  297,  302;  and  Cabinet 
paper  on  deposits,  305;  on  Duane, 
308  n.]  and  Jackson's  Protest,  339; 
wisdom  in  Bank  controversy,  366; 
Postmaster-General,  reforms,  374-76; 
and  exclusion  of  Abolitionist  mail, 
435;  and  Whitney  affair,  461.  See  also 
Kitchen  Cabinet. 

Kent,  James,  and  suffrage,  54;  on  Liv 
ingston  Code,  135;  in  campaign  of 
1832,  236. 

Kentucky,  Eaton  and  campaign  of  1828, 
58;  "Courts"  contest,  163. 

Key,  F.  S.,  and  Mrs.  Forsyth,  25;  and 
Berrien,  129;  on  disruption  of  Cabinet, 
130. 

Kinchy, ,  and  ice  cream,  26. 

King,  J.  P.;  patronage  inquiry,  383,  384. 

King,  W.  R.  and  land  report,  198;  and 
Force  Bill.  272;  and  expunging  censure, 
369,  370;  Poindexter  investigation, 
382;  and  Fortifications  Bill,  403;  on 
politics  in  Abolitionist  affairs,  445, 
446. 


INDEX 


499 


Kitchen  Cabinet,  importance,  144,  169; 
character  and  role  of  members:  Ken 
dall,  144-51;  Lewis.  151-55;  Hill, 
155-58;  Blair,  161-69;  and  establish 
ment  of  organ,  160,  161;  campaign 
methods,  227;  in  campaign  of  1832, 
242-45;  and  removal  of  deposits,  293; 
and  deposits  excitement,  330,  350; 
and  expunging  censure,  369;  For- 
syth's  attitude,  389 ;  and  French  crisis, 
422;  and  Whitney,  458.  See  also 
members  by  name. 

Krudener,  Baron  de,  and  Mrs.  Eaton, 
122. 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  and  Spoliation 
Claims,  391. 

Latrobe,  B.  H.,  Van  Ness  house,  8; 
Senate  Chamber,  9. 

Lawrence,  C.  W.,  mayoral  election,  355. 

Leavenworth,  Henry,  on  Isaac  Hill,  86. 

Lee,  Henry,  rejection  by  Senate,  char 
acter,  82. 

Lee,  R.  E.,  marriage,  8. 

Leigh,  B.  W.,  Virginia  commissioner 
to  Nullifiers,  284;  as  leader  of  Oppo 
sition,  285;  Bank  leader,  319;  political 
character,  321;  and  Webster's  re- 
charter  measure,  334;  on  Jackson's 
Protest,  340,  341;  protested  reelection 
to  .Senate,  363,  364;  and  French  crisis, 
397  n.;  and  Fortifications  Bill,  412; 
and  instructions  to  expunge  censure, 
441,  442;  and  Abolitionist  petitions, 
444  n.;  and  Abolitionist  mail,  445. 

Letcher,  R.  P.,  and  compromise  tariff, 
278-80,  282;  and  White.  425. 

Lewis,    Delia,   marriage,    and    Jackson, 

407. 

^ewis,  W.  B.,  and  spoils  system,  68; 
and  Jackson-Calhoun  break,  103-05; 
character,  role  in  Kitchen  Cabinet, 
151-55,  169;  in  election  of  1828,  153; 
and  Biddle,  155;  and  coming  of  Blair, 
162;  and  Jackson's  candidacy  for 
reelection,  172;  and  Bank,  205,  218; 
on  McLane's  Bank  report,  209;  and 
Bank  veto,  219;  campaign  methods, 
242,  244;  and  Nullification,  275;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  305,  306 ;  attempt 
to  exclude  from  floor  of  House,  324; 
and  spring  elections  (1834),  354;  and 
French  crisis,  398;  and  McLean's 
candidacy,  423;  and  vice-presidential 
candidates  (1835),  431.  See  also 
Kitchen  Cabinet. 

Lexington,  Ky.,  greeting  of  Jackson,  246. 


Lexington  Observer,  on  Bank  veto,  221. 

Linn,  L.  F.,  and  expunging  censure, 
465,  470. 

Livingston,  Cora,  as  belle,  23,  406; 
marriage,  and  Jackson,  406,  478. 

Livingston,  Edward,  and  Webster- 
Hayne  debate,  93,  99;  Crawford 
investigation,  108;  selection  as  Sec 
retary  of  State,  127;  and  Berrien,  129; 
career  and  character,  133-36;  Code, 
135;  Clay  and  confirmation,  182;  and 
Bank  issue,  207,  212,  215,  216;  and 
Bank  veto,  219;  and  Anti-Masons, 
237;  Nullification  Proclamation,  257- 
60;  and  Webster's  attitude  on  Nulli 
fication,  274;  French  mission,  287;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  293;  and  Spolia 
tion  Claims,  386,  390,  391,  394,  395, 
398 ;  leaves  France,  406 ;  ovation  on 
return,  407;  and  message  on  crisis,  409. 

Livingston,  Mrs.  Edward,  as  social 
leader,  22;  and  Jackson,  478. 

Livingston  Code,  135. 

Locofocos,  and  Van  Buren,  452. 

Lodge,  H.  C.,  on  Webster-Hayne  debate, 
97;  on  Webster  and  Jackson,  277. 

Louis  Philippe,  and  Spoliation  Claims, 
390,  391. 

Louisiana,  Bank  and  election  (1834), 
356. 

McDuffie,  George,  and  Ingham,  43;  as 
Opposition  leader,  177,  285;  career 
and  character,  191-93;  tariff  report 
and  speech,  189,  193;  and  Bank  issue, 
211;  Bank  recharter  bill,  214,  215; 
and  Nullification,  253;  and  Nullifi 
cation  Proclamation,  265;  public 
harangues  on  deposits,  330;  and 
deposits  question  in  House,  343-45, 
348. 

McLane,  Louis,  and  Treasury  portfolio 
(1829),  42,  43;  on  Branch,  44;  English 
mission,  50;  and  Attorney-General 
ship,  125;  selection  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  127,  128;  West  Indian  trade 
negotiations,  178;  tariff  report,  189, 
193;  public  lands  report,  196;  Bank 
report,  208,  210;  and  Bank  issue,  207, 
209,  210,  212,  216;  transfer  to  State 
portfolio,  287;  and  removal  of  deposits, 
question  of  resignation,  290  n.,  292, 
293,  296,  297,  300,  303,  305,  309; 
resigns,  359. 

McLane,  Mrs.  Louis,  as  secial  leader,  23; 
and  Mrs.  Eaton,  131;  and  Jackson, 
478. 


500 


INDEX 


McLean,  John,  treachery  to  Adams,  35; 
selection  as  Postmaster-General,  44; 
and  proscriptions,  transfer  to  Supreme 
Court,  49 ;  and  presidential  candidacy, 
423,  432. 

Macomb,  Alexander,  and  Kendall,  148. 

Madison,  James,  on  Livingston  Code. 
135;  and  tariff,  188. 

Maine,  H.  J.  S.,  on  Livingston  Code, 
135. 

Mangum,  W.  P.,  and  Bank,  211  n.;  and 
Force  Bill,  271;  Poindexter  investi 
gation,  382;  and  French  crisis,  396; 
electoral  vote  for,  433,  454. 

March,  C.  W.,  on  Webster-Hayne 
debate,  97. 

Marcy,  W.  L.,  and  tariff,  195;  and  Bank, 
318. 

Marryat,  Frederick,  on  Washington, 
6;  on  Capital's  social  charm,  19. 

Marshall,  John,  and  Fanny  Kemble,  16; 
and  Mrs.  Livingston,  22;  on  Berrien, 
60;  on  Livingston  Code,  135;  and  tariff, 
188;  and  Nullification  Proclamation, 
260;  and  Taney,  440;  Jackson  and 
memorial,  440. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  on  Washington,  2; 
on  the  avenues,  6;  on  Senate,  9; 
lionized,  13;  on  Washington  life,  20;  on 
statesmen  in  society,  24;  on  Kendall, 
150;  and  assassination  conspiracy,  379. 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  Hill  episode,  202. 

Massachusetts,  in  election  of  1836,  433, 
454. 

Mechanics'  Free  Press,  in  campaign  of 
1832,  248. 

"Messes"  at  Washington,  12. 

Mexico,  relations  with,  229. 

Michigan,  Cass's  services,  141. 

"Millennium  of  the  minnows,"  51,  130. 

Mississippi,  election  (1834),  364. 

Monroe,  James,  and  Wirt  and  Jackson, 
38;  and  Jackson's  Florida  operations, 
78. 

Moore,  Gabriel,  and  Abolitionist  peti 
tions,  444  n. 

National  Bank,  Jacksonian  hostility, 
first  message  on,  171,  201-04;  Hill- 
Mason  episode,  202;  attitude  of 
Administration  on,  as  issue  (1831), 
204-09;  and  warnings,  overtures  to 
Jackson,  204;  Clay  forces  recharter  as 
issue,  207,  209;  subsidized  press,  207, 
228;  Administration  and  McLane 
favorable  report,  208,  210;  problem  of 
application  for  recharter,  209-12; 


Whig  leaders  force  application,  212- 
14;  recharter  in  Congress,  214,  215; 
congressional  investigation,  results, 
215,  216;  veto  expected,  217;  Cabinet 
and  veto,  217;  preparation  of  veto 
message,  218;  veto  message  as  cam 
paign  appeal,  its  chawicter,  219-21, 
244;  its  reception,  221;  excitement 
over  question,  222;  veto  before  Con 
gress,  speeches,  222-26;  propaganda, 
in  campaign  of  1832.  238-40;  D*emo~ 
cratic  campaign  literature  on,  243, 
244,  SigTSll  alao  Removat-of  deposits. 

National  Gazette,  "  Vindex"  articles,  347; 
and  French  crisis,  396;  on  Fortifica 
tions  Bill,  411. 

National  Intelligencer,  in  campaign  of 
1828,  32;  and  Jackson  retirement 
canard,  240;  and  removal  of  deposits, 
298;  and  French  crisis,  394,  395,  397, 
411;  on  Fortifications  Bill,  414. 

National  Journal,  in  campaign  of  1828, 
32;  as  Adams  organ,  159. 

National  Republican  Party.  See  Whig 
Party. 

National  Telegraph.  See  United  States 
Telegraph. 

Navy  Department.  See  Branch,  John; 
Dickerson,  Mahlon;  Woodbury,  Levi. 

Negro  colonization,  use  of  public  lands 
proceeds,  198,  199. 

Nesselrode,  Count,  and  Globe,  168. 

New  England,  Jackson's  tour,  288-90. 

New  Hampshire  Patriot,  under  Hill, 
157;  in  campaign  of  1832,  243,  248, 
249.  See  also  Hill,  Isaac. 

New  Jersey,  and  Van  Buren,  182; 
election  (1834),  361. 

New  York,  Anti-Masons  in,  234; 
coalition  electoral  ticket  (1832),  236; 
and  Nullification,  263,  264;  election 
(1834),  361,  362;  and  Democratic 
vice-presidential  nomination  (1835), 
430,  431. 

New  York  City,  Jackson  parade,  245; 
Jackson  in,  289;  Bank  meeting,  316; 
Bank  harangues,  330;  Bank  question 
in  municipal  election  (1834),  354-56; 
and  French  crisis,  407. 

New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  Van 
Buren  organ,  and  Jackson's  reelection, 
172;  attack  on  Bank,  203;  goes  over 
to  Bank,  208,  228;  and  French  crisis, 
394.  See  ateo  Webb,  J.  W. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  and  Bank,  239. 

Newspapers,  Washington  correspondents, 
16;  Senate's  rejection  of  nomination 


INDEX 


501 


of  editors,  80;  Jackson  and  power,  81; 
in  campaign  of  1828,  81 ;  establishment 
of  Jackson  organ,  Globe,  158-61;  in 
Bank  controversy,  207;  in  campaign 
of  1832,  228,  242;  Bank  controlled, 
305;  in  campaign  of  1836,  451. 

Nicholas,  R.  C.,  and  Abolitionist  peti 
tions,  444  n. 

Niles,  J.  M.,  and  expunging  censure,  464. 

Niles'  Register,  on  Bank  and  depression, 
312,  341 ;  on  Whigs,  357. 

Noah,  M.  M.,  pre-inaugural  conferences, 
39;  rejection  by  Senate,  career,  82; 
reappointment,  confirmation,  86;  and 
attack  on  Bank,  203. 

Nullification,  andWebster-Hayne  debate, 
97-99;  Jefferson's  Birthday  dinner, 
Jackson's  Union  toast,  100-03;  and 
reorganized  Cabinet,  130;  Nullifiers 
and  support  of  Clay  (1832),  231-33; 
denounced  by  Jacksonians,  233 ;  Jack 
son  and  anticipated,  252;  .growth  of 
South  Carolina  sentiment,  253;  Cal- 
houn's  ^position,  253;  Calhoun's 
letter  to  Hamilton,  254;  Unionists, 
Poinsett  as  Jackson's  agent,  254,  255; 
Jackson's  preparation  to  combat, 
255;  Jackson's  desire  for  peaceful 
settlement,  256-58,  68;  annual  mes 
sage  on,  257;  preparation  of  Jackson's 
Proclamation,  257-59;  his  intention 
to  punish,  259,  269,  273,  277,  279; 
character  of  Proclamation,  260,  263; 
Webster's  attitude  and  speech,  260, 
273-77;  Clay's  political  play,  261, 
264,  270,  280;  attitude  of  Virginia, 
Clay's  intrigue,  Cass's  letter,  261-63; 
Virginia  commissioner  to  South  Caro 
lina,  262,  284;  Van  Buren  and  atti 
tude  of  New  York,  263,  264;  South 
Carolina  and  Proclamation,  265; 
Calhoun's  journey  to  Washington 
and  senatorial  oath,  266,  267;  Admin 
istration's  tariff  bill,  267;  armed 
preparations,  268;  Jackson's  special 
message,  reception,  268,  269;  Force 
Bill,  269;  Calhoun's  resolutions,  269; 
debate  in  Senate,  270-72;  Calhoun's 
speech,  274;  union  of  Jackson's 
opponents,  277,  285;  origin  of  com- 
prpmise  tariff,  277-81;  compromise 
bill,  Clayton's  amendments,  281-84; 
passage  of  Force  Bill,  282;  Ordinance 
rescinded,  284;  and  origin  of  Whigs, 
285;  Georgia  and,  388. 

Octagon  House,  8  n. 


Offices.   See  Civil  service. 
Ohio,  in  election  of  1836,  431. 
O'Neal,  Margaret.  See  Eaton,  Mrs.  J.  H. 
Opera,  in  Washington,  28. 
Oregon,  Jackson's  attitude,  390,  480. 
Otis,  H.  G.,  on  Clay's  tariff  speech,  188; 
denounces  Abolitionists,  434. 

Pageot,  Alphonse,  American  marriage 
and  Spoliation  Claims,  398,  407,  409. 

Parton,  James,  on  Barry,  62. 

Patent  Office,  visitors  and,  8. 

Patronage.   See  Civil  service. 

Penn,  Shadrach,  attacks  on,  147. 

Pennsylvania,  tariff  and  election  of  1832, 
185,  188;  and  Bank  as  issue,  209; 
election  of  1834,  361. 

Peyton,  Balie,  Whitney  affair,  459;  and 
expunging  censure,  470. 

Philadelphia,  Jackson  in,  289;  Bank 
harangues,  330;  election  riots,  363; 
and  French  crisis,  407. 

Philadelphia  Standard,  and  Bank,  239. 

Pinckney,  William,  peculation,  dismis 
sal,  75  n. 

Pittsburgh  Statesman,  in  campaign  of 
1832,  247. 

Pleasants,  J.  H.,  and  Nullifiers  and  Clay, 
232,  262. 

Poindexter,  George,  on  Blair,  164;  and 
Bank,  211  n.,  217;  and  Force  Bill, 
272,  276;  as  leader  of  Opposition,  285; 
public  harangues  on  deposits,  330;  on 
Jackson's  Protest,  339;  defeat,  365; 
and  assassination  conspiracy,  378,  379, 
382;  career  and  character,  relations 
with  Jackson,  379-82;  on  evils  of 
patronage,  384. 

Poinsett,  J.  R.,  and  opposition  to  Nul 
lification,  254,  255,  268,  269;  later 
career,  285,  473. 

Political  parties,  beginning  of  basis  in 
policies,  64,  65,  67. 

Polk,  J.  K.,  and  White,  128;  as  Jackso- 
nian  leader,  177;  and  Bank,  232;  in  de 
bate  on  deposits,  344,  345;  report  on 
deposits,  348;  and  White's  candidacy, 
426;  Speakership  contests,  429,  439. 

Poore,  B.  P.,  on  Washington  morals, 
19;  on  Berrien,  60;  on  Mrs.  Eaton, 
117;  on  McDuffie,  192;  on  Jackson 
and  Calhoun,  279. 

Porter,.  Alexander,  and  Abolitionist 
petitions,  444  n. 

Porter,  P.  B.,  and  defeat  (1828),  35. 

Post-Office  Department,  head  made 
Cabinet  officer,  44;  corruption,  in- 


502 


INDEX 


vestigation,  reorganization,  183,  369, 
371-74;  Kendall's  reforms,  374-76; 
exclusion  of  Abolitionist  mail,  435,  445. 
See  also  Barry,  W.  T. 

Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Count,  and  Spoliation 
Claims,  390. 

Prentice,  G.  D.,  and  Shadrach  Penn,  147. 

Prentiss,  Samuel,  as  orator,  173;  ap 
pearance,  321. 

Preston,  W.  C.,  and  Harriet  Martineau, 
14;  and  Nullification,  253;  on  Nulli 
fication  Proclamation,  265;  as  leader 
of  Opposition,  285;  Bank  leader,  319; 
character,  320;  public  harangues  on 
deposits,  330;  speech  on  censure, 
332;  confidence  in  Bank's  victory, 
332 ;  and  Post-Office  corruption,  369; 
and  expunging  censure,  370,  463,  464; 
and  pictures  for  White  House,  385; 
and  French  crisis,  397  n, ;  and  Forti 
fications  Bill,  412;  and  Abolitionist 
petitions,  444  n.;  and  Abolitionist 
mail,  445. 

Public  debt,  and  tariff  bill  (1832),  185- 
87;  Bank  and  extinguishment,  304; 
celebration  of  extinguishment,  384. 

Public  lands,  Benton's  gradation  policy, 
196;  Clay's  attitude,  effect  in  West, 
196;  Administration's  distribution 
policy,  197;  Clay's  report,  197;  recom 
mittal,  Benton's  report,  198;  pocket 
veto  of  Clay's  bill,  286. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  and  Cora  Livingston, 
23,  406;  onCalhoun,  91;  on  McDuffie, 
192. 

Ranee,  M.,  and  Spoliation  Claims,  406. 

Randolph,  John,  "mess,"  12;  and  Mrs. 
Livingston,  22;  defeat  by  Tyler,  78, 
79;  Crawford  investigation,  108;  on 
Hardin,  402. 

Red  Fox,  nickname  for  Van  Buren,  40. 

Removal  of  deposits,  origin  of  plan, 
289-92;  Bank's  relations  with  Oppo 
sition,  291,  324;  attitude  of  Van 
Buren  and  Cabinet,  292,  295,  299- 
301,  303,  305,  309;  political  basis  of 
removal,  292,  294;  question  of  recess 
removal,  293,  297;  Duane's  attitude, 
295,  303;  Kendall's  sounding  of  State 
banks,  296-98,  302;  warnings  to  and 
by  Bank,  297,  298;  Taney  as  advocate 
of  removal,  301,  306;  determined 
upon,  302;  Cabinet  paper  on  reasons, 
303-05;  Bank  and  extinguishment  of 
public  debt,  304;  Biddle's  control  of 


Bank,  305;  Bank's  subsidized 
305;  removal  announced,  306;  Duane'a 
recalcitrance  and  dismissal,  306-09; 
Bank  memorial  to  Congress,  309; 
curtailment  and  depression  to  force 
recharter,  310-15;  distress  petitions, 
Jackson  and,  315-17;  business  re 
action  against  Bank,  317-19,  329, 
341,  352;  controversy  in  Congress, 
leaders  there,  319-21;  Jackson's  pa-, 
pers  as  appeal  to  public,  322; 
Senate  and  depository  banks,  322; 
Senate  and  Cabinet  paper,  323;  Sen 
ate's  rejection  of  Government  Bank 
directors,  324;  legal  basis  of  opposi 
tion  to  removal,  325;  resolution  to 
censure  Jackson,  325;  public  interest 
in  senatorial  debate,  326;  distress  pe 
titions  before  Congress,  327,  328; 
counter-petitions,  328,  329;  political 
stimulation  of  excitement,  330,  350; 
debate  on  censure,  330-32;  confidence 
of  Opposition,  332;  Clay's  selfish 
attitude,  332,  335,  366;  Webster's 
compromise  recharter  measure,  333-r 
35;  Van  Buren  and  Clay's  histrionics, 
335-37;  passage  of  censure,  337; 
Jackson's  Protest,  338,  339;  debate  on 
Protest,  339-42;  House  measures  and 
debate  on  removal,  342-49;  attack  on 
Hopkinson's  Bank  connection,  347; 
House  committee  to  investigate  Bank, 
frustration,  349,  350;  Senate  resolution 
ordering  restoration  of  deposits,  350; 
Taney's  special  report  on  finances, 
publicity,  350-52;  question  in  spring 
elections  (1834),  354-57;  in  fall 
elections,  358,  361-67;  Whig  warning! 
against  further  contractions,  360; 
mistakes  in  Whig  methods,  366,  367; 
revelations  through  Jackson's  method 
of  attack,  367;  fall  of  Bank,  368;  in 
fluence  and  lesson  of  battle,  368; 
expunging  censure,  368-41,  441-43, 
461-71.  See  also  National  Bank. 

Revenue,   proposed  reduction  and  dis 
tribution,  383. 

Rhode  Island,  Bank  and  election  (1834), 
356. 

Richmond  Whig,  on  Jackson  and  Mar 
shall,  440.    See  also  Pleasants,  J.  H. 

Rigny,  Comte  de,  and  Spoliation  Claims, 
394. 

Ringgold,  Finch,  on  Calhoun  and  Jack 
son,  103. 

Rip  Raps,  Jackson  at,  296,  299. 

Ritchie,  Thomas,  on  Calhoun,  89  n. ;  and 


INDEX 


503 


Jackson  organ;  159;  in  campaign  of 
1832,  240;  and  Nullification,  261,  262; 
on  Duane,  288;  and  removal  of  de 
posits,  299;  on  Whig  Party,  358;  in 
election  of  1834,  363,  364;  and  vice- 
presidential  candidates  (1835),  430; 
on  Senators  and  instructions  to  ex 
punge,  442. 

Rives,  J.  C.,  and  message  on  French 
crisis,  392. 

Rives,  W.  C.,  and  Senate,  261;  and 
Force  Bill,  271;  speech  on  censure, 
332 ;  and  vice-presidential  nomination, 
430,  431;  and  expunging  censure,  464. 

Roads,  condition,  to  Washington,  1. 

Robertson,  J.,  peculation, 'dismissal,  75  n. 

Robinson,  J.  M.,  and  Bank,  211  n. 

Rockingham  Memorial,  94. 

Roenne,  Baron  von,  as  social  leader, 
27. 

Rogerson,  Asa,  peculation,  dismissal, 
75  n. 

Rucker,  E.,  in  Democratic  Convention, 
430. 

"  Ri'.ckerize,"  origin  of  word,  430. 

Rush,  Richard,  and  defeat  (1828),  35; 
report  on  public  lands,  196. 

St.  John's  Church,  8. 

St.    Louis    Republican,    on    Bank    and 

depression,  341. 
Sargent,  Nathan,  on  Washington  streets, 

7;  on  McLean  and  justiceship,  49. 
Schaaf,  Arthur,  on  Eaton-Ingham  affair, 

132. 
Scott,  Winfield,  and  Nullification,  255, 

273.  , 

Sectionalism,  Tyler's  attitude778;  Cal- 

houn's  efforts  (1836),  443-48.  See  also 

Nullification. 
Seminole  campaign,  criticism  of  Jackson, 

78;  and  Jackson-Calhoun  break,  103- 

06,  110-15. 
Senate,  chamber,  women  visitors,  9.   See 

also  Congress. 
Sergeant,    John,    and    Bank    recharter 

application,    213;    on    union    against 

Jackson,  277;  and  Webster's  com 
promise  recharter  measure,  334;  and 

House  investigation  committee,  349. 
Serurier,  Comte,  and  Spoliation  Claims, 

recall,  395,  398,  405,  411. 
Seward,  W.  H.,  and  Nullification,  264. 
•Shepard,  E.  M.,  biography  of  Van  Buren, 

53. 
Slavery,  Tyler  and  territorial,  78.    See 

also  Abolitionists. 


Slaves,  in  Washington,  11. 

Smith,  Margaret  B.,  on  Harriet  Mar- 
tineau  in  Washington,  14;  on  Mrs. 
Livingston,  22;  on  defeat  of  Adams, 
35,  36 ;  on  office-holders  and  Jackson, 
40;  on  inauguration  of  Jackson,  47,  48; 
on  Webster-Hayne  debate,  98;  on  Mrs. 
Eaton,  120,  130. 

Smith,  Nathan,  Poindexter  investiga 
tion,  382. 

Smith,  Samuel,  and  Bank  recharter  as 
issue,  211. 

Society  in  Washington  and  celebrities, 
13-15;  strenuousness,  20;  fashions, 
20;  brilliance,  21;  leaders,  22-24; 
character,  statesmen  in,  24;  gossip,  25; 
gallantry,  25;  evening  parties,  dancing, 
25 ;  diplomatists  as  leaders,  27 ;  assem 
blies,  28;  other  amusements,  28;  on 
Sunday,  29. 

South  Carolina,  in  election  of  1832,  251; 
of  1836,  454.  See  also  Nullification. 

Southard,  S.  L.,  and  defeat  (1828),  35; 
on  Jackson's  Protest,  340;  patronage 
inquiry,  383. 

Sparks,  W.  H.,  on  Poindexter,  380. 

Sprague,  Peleg,  on  Jackson's  Protest, 
340;  and  French  crisis,  396. 

State  Department,  museum,  8.  See  also 
Foreign  relations;  Forsyth,  John; 
Livingston,  Edward;  McLane,  Louis; 
Van  Buren,  Martin. 

Stevenson,  Andrew,  and  Ban,  recharter, 
214;  rejection  for  English  mission, 
352;  in  Baltimore  Convention,  430. 

Stevenson,  Mrs.  Andrew,  and  Mrs. 
Livingston,  22;  as  social  leader,  23. 

Story,  Joseph,  and  Harriet  Martineau, 
14;  and  Fanny  Kemble,  verses,  16;  on 
Mrs.  Livingston,  22;  in  society,  24; 
on  isolation  of  Adams,  46;  on  Calhoun, 
90  n.;  on  Livingston  Code,  135;  on 
Nullification  Proclamation,  260;  and 
legal  phase  of  removal  of  deposits,  325 ; 
on  French  crisis,  393. 

Streets,  condition  of  Washington,  4,  5,  7. 

Suffrage,  Van  Buren's  attitude,  54;  ex 
tension  and  campaign  of  1832,  242. 

Sunday,  in  Washington,  29. 

Supreme  Court,  chamber,  aspect,  10; 
appointment  of  McLean,  49;  Jack 
son's  attitude  in  Bank  veto,  220; 
Taney's  appointment,  440. 

Surplus  revenue,  proposed  distribution, 
383. 

Swanton,  J.  B.,  peculation,  dismissal, 
75  n. 


504 


INDEX 


Swartwout,  Samuel,  as  office-seeker,  69; 
onJBank,  312. 

Tallmadge,  N.  P.,  and  Abolitionist  mail 

bill,  448. 

Taney,  R.  B.,  selection  as  Attorney- 
General,  129;  career  and  character, 
136-40;  and  War  of  1812,  136;  Aboli 
tionist  case,  138;  hostility  to  Bank, 
210,  218;  and  Bank  veto,  219;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  292,  293,  294,  299, 
301,  306;  and  Cabinet  paper  on  re 
moval,  305;  and  dismissal  of  Duane, 
309;  special  report  on  finances,  350; 
rejected  by  Senate  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  352;  confirmed  as  Chief 
Justice,  440;  and  Farewell  Address, 
472. 

Tariff,  Jackson's  attitude,  171;  Clay's 
plan  (1832),  185-87;  Clay's  speech, 
187;  Tyler's  Southern  warning,  188; 
McDuffie's  report  and  speech,  189, 
193;  Administration  measure,  193; 
'  Adams's  report  and  bill,  193;  con 
ference  bill,  194,  195;  failure  as  issue, 
195;  of  1828  and  1832  and  Nullifica 
tion,  253;  Administration  bill  (1833), 
267;  origin  of  compromise  bill,  277-81; 
provisions  of  compromise,  Nullifiers 
and  Clayton's  amendments,  281-84. 
Tayloe,  B.  O.,  and  W.  H.  Harrison, 

14  n. 
Tayloe,  Mrs.  B.  O.,  and  Harriet  Mar- 

tineau,  14;  as  social  leader,  24. 
Tayloe,  John,  residence,  8. 
Tazewell,  L.  W.,  "mess,"  12;  and  State 
portfolio,  41;  and  War  portfolio,  43; 
and  English  mission,  50;  and  rejection 
of   Jackson's  nominations,    82;   joins 
Opposition,  115,  176;  and  White  for 
Cabinet,  128;  and  Jackson  organ,  159; 
and  conference  on  tariff,  194;  and  legal 
basis  of  deposits  controversy,  325. 
Telegraph.    See  United  States  Telegraph. 
Tennessee,     and     White's     presidential 
candidacy,  426,  427;  and  Democratic 
Convention  (1835),  430;  in  election  of 
1836,  Jackson  and  canvass,  433,  448, 
453,  455. 

Territories,  Tyler  and  slavery  in,  78. 
Texas,  Jackson  and,  480. 
Theater,  in  Washington,  16,  17. 
Thompson,  George,  Abolitionist  crusade, 

434. 

Thornton,  William,  Octagon  House,  8. 
Travel,  conditions,  to  Washington,  1-3. 
Treasury  Department.  See  Duane,  W.  J.; 


Ingham,  S.  D.;  McLane,  Louis;  Tanej*," 
R.  B.;  Woodbury,  Levi. 

Troy  Sentinel,  in  campaign  of  1832,  248. 

Turkey,  treaty,  229. 

Tyler,  John,  on  Irving,  15;  career  and 
character,  77-80,  441;  origin  and 
development  of  hostility  to  Jackson, 
78-80;  sectionalist,  78;  and  Jackson's 
Cabinet,  79;  appearance,  80;  and 
rejection  of  Jackson's  nominations, 
82,  83,  85;  joins  Opposition,  115,  176; 
on  Cabinet  reorganization,  127,  130; 
on  Taney's  official  propriety,  140  n.\ 
and  rejection  of  Van  Buren,  180;  and 
tariff,  188;  caution  in  campaign  of 
1832,  230;  and  Nullification,  261;  and 
Force  Bill,  270,  282;  and  compromise 
tariff,  278,  280,  281;  as  leader  of 
Opposition,  285;  and  removal  of  de 
posits,  329;  and  rejection  of  Stevenson, 
352;  on  attempt  to  assassinate  Jack 
son,  376;  Poindexter  investigation, 
382;  vice-presidential  candidacy,  433; 
and  instructions  to  expunge  censure, 
resignation,  441,  442. 

Union.  See  Nullification;  Sectionalism. 

United  States  Telegraph,  and  spoils 
system,  65;;as  Calhoun's  organ,  85,  91; 
campaign  extras  (1832),  230,  239; 
rescue  by  Whigs,  277;  and  Aboli 
tionism  and  sectionalism,  444.  See 
also  Green,  Duff. 

Upham,  Timothy,  peculation,  dismissal, 
75  n. 

Van  Buren,  John,  campaign  bets,  251. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  and  Butler,  1,  310; 
and  selection  of 'Jackson's  Cabinet,  40, 
42,  45;  presidential  aspirations  and 
Calhoun,  40,  85;  selection  for  State 
portfolio,  40;  and  Hamilton,  41,  201; 
political  career  and  character,  53-57; 
as  lawyer,  53;  and  civil  service,  54, 
68,  70,  74;  in  War  of  1812,  54; 
and  suffrage,  54;  as  leader  against 
Adams's  Administration,  55,  64;  ap 
pearance,  55;  manner,  56;  as  orator, 
56;  and  Jackson-Calhoun  break,  bene 
ficiary,  88,  110,  111,  114,  115,  179;  and 
Jackson's  Union  toast,  100;  resigna 
tion  from  Cabinet,  116,  124;  and  Mrs. 
Eaton,  political  effect,  121,  122;  and 
Louis  McLane,  125,  359  n.;  future 
(1830),  127;  and  new  Cabinet,  127- 
29;  and  Kendall,  149;  on  Lewis,  154; 

(    and  organ  for  Jackson,  159-61 ;  organ 


INDEX 


505 


172,  243;  as  Minister,  177;  rejection 
by  Senate,  political  effect,  178-82; 
West  Indian  trade  negotiations,  178; 
and  Bank,  205,  206;  and  Bank  veto, 
218,  219;  on  Webster's  Bank  veto 
speech,  223;  campaign  canard  on 
(1832)  240;  and  Nullification,  263,  264; 
on  compromise  tariff,  280  n.;  in  New 
England  tour,  289;  and  removal  of 
deposits,  290,  292-95,  297,  299-301, 
310;  and  Clay's  histrionics  over 
distress,  335-37;  and  French  crisis, 
398;  and  Fortifications  Bill,  404,  411; 
and  Cora  Livingston,  406;  Adams  on, 
438,  450;  Jackson  and  succession,  423; 
and  vice-presidential  candidates,  431; 
and  slavery  issue,  435,  444,  446-48, 
452;  Crockett's  biography,  436-38: 
attitude  during  campaign,  438;  and 
Bell,  439;  Calhoun's  attack,  449;  and 
campaign  queries,  452;  electoral  vote, 
454;  and  results  of  election,  455,  456; 
Cabinet,  473;  at  Jackson's  last  recep 
tion,  473;  Jackson  at  inaugural,  479. 

Van  Ness,  J.  P.,  residence,  8;  and  re 
ception  of  Jackson,  37. 

Vaughan,  C.  R.,  and  Mrs.  Eaton,  121  n., 
122. 

Verplanck,  G.  C.,  "mess,"  13;  tariff  bill, 
267;  mayoral  campaign,  355. 

Vigne,  G.  T.,  on  Arlington,  Sn.',  on 
Supreme  Court,  10  n. 

Villemain,  A.  F.,  on  Livingston  Code, 
135. 

Virginia,  in  campaign  of  1832,  231;  and 
Nullification,  261-63, 284;  and  removal 
of  deposits,  329;  election  of  1834,  356, 
363,  364;  and  Democratic  vice-presi 
dential  nomination,  430,  431;  Senators 
and  instructions  to  expunge  censure, 
441,  442. 

Walker,  R.  J.,  election  to  Senate,  365; 
and  Abolitionist  petitions,  444  n. 

War  Department.  See  Cass,  Lewis; 
Eaton,  J.  H. 

War  of  1812,  Van  Buren's  attitude,  54; 
Calhoun's  services,  89;  Webster's  at 
titude,  94,  95;  Taney's  attitude,  136. 

Washington,  Bushrod,  and  Mrs.  Living 
ston,  22. 

Washington  in  the  thirties,  condi 
tion  of  travel  to,  1;  approach,  2; 
hotels,  3;  streets,  coach  hire,  lighting, 
4,  5,  7;  lack  of  compactness,  5,  6; 
avenues,  6;  special  residences,  7,  8; 
.  public  buildings,  8;  Capitol,  8-11; 


housing  conditions^  11;  servants, 
slaves,  11;  cost  of  living,  12;  boarding- 
houses,  messes,  12;  and  celebrities, 
13-15;  press  letters  from,  16;  theater, 
16, 17;'dissipation,  18, 19;  social  charm, 
19;  fashions,  20;  society  leaders,  21- 
25;  evening  parties,  25-27;  foreign 
ministers  in  society,  27;  assemblies, 
opera,  28;  social  character,  28;  Sunday 
in,  29;  unhealthfulness,  29;  and  elec 
tion  of  Jackson,  31,  35.  See  also  White 
House. 

Washington  Globe,  establishment  as 
Jackson  organ,  160,  161,  164;  daily, 
finances,  165;  political  power,  166- 
68;  and  foreign  affairs,  168,  169; 
lead  in  campaign  of  1832,  228,  242, 
248.  See  also  Blair,  F.  P. 

Washington  Theater,  16. 

Watkins,  Tobias,  peculation,  dismissal, 
75. 

Webb,  J.  W.,  on  Isaac  Hill,  86;  and 
Bank  controversy,  208,  228;  losses 
through  Bank  policy,  318;  names 
Whig  Party,  357.  See  also  New  York 
Courier  and  Enquirer. 

Webster,  Daniel,  and  Harriet  Martineau, 
14;  and  Mrs.  Livingston,  22;  in 
society,  24;  on  inauguration  crowd 
(1829),  37;  on  Jackson  as  president 
elect,  38;  denunciation  of  Jackson's 
removals,  76;  and  Calhoun's  candi 
dacy,  90;  Hayne  debate  as  political, 
92,  93,  98;  Union  issue  of  debate,  93, 
97,  99,  103;  political  career  and 
character,  94-96;  and  War  of  1812, 
94,  95;  as  orator,  95;  effect  of  Hayne's 
speech,  96,  97;  reply,  effect,  98; 
Crawford  investigation,  108;  and 
Clay's  return  to  Senate,  171;  and 
party  leadership,  172,  173;  as  anti- 
Jackson  leader,  176;  and  rejection  of 
Van  Buren,  178,  180;  and  tariff  (1832), 
195;  and  Bank  recharter  as  issue, 
210-12;  and  forcing  of  recharter 
application,  213;  on  veto  message, 
222,  223;  in  campaign  of  1832,  244; 
attitude  on  Nullification,  and  Jackson, 
260,  273-77,  288;  and  compromise 
tariff,  278,  280|  and  removal  of  de 
posits,  309;  advice  to  Bank,  310,  314; 
and  Bank  retainers,  324;  and  legal 
phase  of  removal,  325;  and  distress 
petitions,  327;  Bank  harangue,  330, 
355;  and  censure  debate,  332;  com 
promise  recharter  measure,  333-35; 
on  Jackson's  Protest,  342;  and  spring 


506 


INDEX 


elections  (1834),  354;  on  elections  of 
1834,  365;  and  expunging  censure, 
371,  469;  patronage  inquiry,  383;  and 
Fortifications  Bill,  403,  410,  412;  and 
Adams,  414;  presidential  candidacy 
(1836),  432,  433,  452;  Adams  on 
candidacy,  438,  450;  and  confirmation 
of  Taney,  441. 

Weed,  Thurlow,  and  attacks  on  Mrs. 
Jackson,  33;  and  rejection  of  Van 
Buren,  181;  as  practical  politician, 
227;  and  removal  of  deposits,  298; 
on  elections  of  1834  and  Bank,  366, 
367. 

Welles,  Gideon,  pre-inaugural  confer 
ences,  39. 

West,  and  Clay's  public  lands  policy, 
196;  Democrats  and  (1835),  431. 

West  Indies,  American  trade  negoti 
ations,  178,  229. 

Whig  (National  Republican)  Party, 
need  of  leader,  176;  and  other  elements 
of  Opposition,  184;  origin,  antagonis 
tic  elements,  285,  357;  assumes  name, 
357. 

White,  D.  L.,  peculation,  dismissal,  75  n. 

White,  H.  L.,  and  Cabinet  position,  127, 
128;  and  Calhoun  and  Webster- 
Hayne  debate,  92,  93;  as  Jacksonian 
leader,  176;  and  tariff,  195;  hostility 
to  Bank,  204;  on  Bank  veto,  222,  224; 
on  tension  in  Bank  issue,  222;  and 
removal  of  deposits,  293,  334,  335; 
and  expunging  censure,  370;  and 
Fortifications  Bill,  403;  drift  from 
Jackson,  423;  as  logical  anti-Van 
Buren  candidate,  424,  425;  Whigs 
and  candidacy,  424,  432;  Democratic 
efforts  to  suppress,  426;  character, 
427;  Tennessee  and  candidacy,  427; 
Blair's  denunciation,  428;  and  slavery 
issue,  436;  and  Crockett's  biography 
of  Van  Buren,  436;  Adams  on,  438, 
450;  and  Abolitionist  petitions,  445; 
and  Abolitionist  mail  bill,  448;  attack 


in  Senate  on  Jackson,  448;  basis  of 
candidacy,  449;  organ,  451;  on  Jack 
son's  canvass  in  Tennessee,  453; 
electoral  vote,  454,  455. 

White,  Mrs.  H.  L.,  boarding-house,  12; 
and  husband's  presidential  candidacy, 
425. 

White  House,  Jackson's  receptions,  47, 
473;  pictures  for,  385;  Jackson's  life 
in,  475-78. 

Whitney,  R.  M.,  affair,  458-61. 

Wilde,  R.  H.,  as  Opposition  leader,  177; 
tariff  speech,  268;  and  Lewis,  324. 

Wilkins,  William,  and  tariff  bill,  194, 
195;  and  Bank,  211  n.,  217',  Force  Bill, 
269,  270. 

Willis,  N.  P.,  on  Washington,  5;  in 
Washington  society,  15. 

Wirt,  William,  and  Mrs.  Livingston,  22; 
and  defeat  (1828),  35;  advances  to 
Jackson,  38;  and  Jackson-Calhoun 
break,  111-13;  Anti-Masonic  can 
didacy,  and  Clay,  234,  249,  303. 

Wise,  H.  A.,  on  Jackson  and  distress 
petitions,  317;  and  Fortifications  Bill, 
404;  and  Adams's  speech  against 
Senate,  419;  Whitney  affair,  457-61; 
on  expunging  censure,  471. 

Wolf,  George,  and  Bank,  Senate  resolu 
tion  on,  318,  329. 

Woodbury,  Levi,  "mess,"  12;  and 
Jackson  (1829),  40;  selection  as 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  129;  and 
Berrien,  129;  and  Bank,  210,  217;  in 
New  England  tour,  289;  and  removal 
of  deposits,  293 ;  transfer  to  Treasury 
portfolio,  359. 

Woodbury,  Mrs.  Levi,  as  social  leader, 
23. 

Wright,  Silas,  and  removal  of  deposits, 
299;  and  Webster's  recharter  measure, 
335;  Poindexter  investigation,  382; 
and  vice-presidential  candidates 
(1835),  431;  and  Abolitionist  mail  bill, 
448;  and  expunging  censure,  465. 


BET 


RETURN 


DEPA«"«N1 


GENERAL  LIBRARY -U.C.  BERKELEY 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


